Flame of Dathomir
by Ana Blackwood
Summary: Maul's ship unexpectedly hits a plasma storm and crashes on an unknown planet. Who he finds there will change the course of history forever. My art for this story can be found Deviantart under the profile "MysticaQueen".
1. Prologue

She had seen the ship touching down on scarlet sands plenty of times in her dreams. She knew what it would look like, what it would sound like, and the identity of each and every person onboard. Over the years, their appearances had shifted and changed, but their cores remained the same. So on the day that they _did_ arrive, she made sure to stay near the entrance of the cave. This was one of those days where everything could possibly change forever.

Once, Dathomir had been abandoned. To call it _lifeless_ was incorrect, as there had been a multitude of animals and plants that had grown wild over the years. What it was empty of were their stewards: the Zabrak Nightbrothers and Nightsisters. Now, however, the planet flourished and the sense of protectiveness over it had only grown. Her exponentially-growing family would ensure that it didn't fall to ruin ever again. So when the ship landed and the doors whooshed open, there was a crowd of men and women armed to the teeth all aiming their weapons at the ship's passengers.

"Easy," one of them called, "we only want to speak to the Nightmother. Is she here?"

Step aside, everyone. I have been expecting them for some time now.

Puzzled, they lowered their weapons. The man in the front whose hair was the color of indigo ink stepped forward first. His vibrant royal blue eyes panned the crowd until he spotted the source of the artificial voice. His gaze landed on a hooded figure who was coming to the front of the crowd.

"Are you the Nightmother?"

She nodded.

You can simply call me Melody. I could care less for formal titles. The name only comes from tradition.

The man's eyes went wide for a second. His suspicions were confirmed when the gloved hands brushed back the hood that was only there to keep the sand from blowing in her eyes. Now that the hood was off, he recognized her. She looked older—her journey had been etched on her skin. But her eyes were the part he'd remembered most. They were vibrant green and still very innocent and childlike.

I see that you remember me now. It must be the voice box that throws you off. I still haven't quite gotten used to it.

She motioned for them to follow her. In addition to the crew she'd run into many years ago, there was an old man with them. His large crystal-blue eyes were gentle but no less intense than she expected. She remembered them very well. No words were exchanged between the two of them—there were none needed.

"So if you were expecting us, do you know why we're here?" the indigo-haired one asked.

I do. But I would like for us to catch up first. A lot can happen in a very short time.

"Like… _this…_ " he agreed, spreading his arms out, gesturing to the population of the planet. As if on cue, a Nightsister walked past, her hand on her swollen belly. Melody smiled—she knew that this one was going to give birth any day now and she would most likely be the one to help bring the infant into the world. It was one of many jobs that she never tired of. Her mate, a yellowish-skinned Zabrak with a broken horn, had wrapped one arm protectively around her. Though his gaze was intimidating, his body language betrayed how happy he was about his newest family member.

They descended into the bowels of the cave toward the place that had become her home years ago. It was filled with life and a great deal of laughter. There were children sprinting around underfoot. They moved so fast that it was impossible to really see them in great detail. Melody smiled at their retreating backs and let the party inside the house.

"Where is he?" the old man asked.

Outside playing, she answered, you'll see him before too long, though. He's hit a growth spurt and eats like a dragon.

"So…what's with all the secrecy? Why _us_ specifically?" the indigo-haired man asked the old one.

"Because that's the way it was meant to be," he replied simply.

The indigo-haired one had a number of questions, all of which Melody would take the time to answer eventually. But the first and most pressing one was the one the indigo-haired one blurted out immediately:

"That kid I saw, the one we came here for…he looked familiar. Like…"

Her questioning gaze prompted for him to continue.

"Like….Maul. But that's not possible, is it? I mean…he never had any children, did he?"

Melody took a moment to collect her thoughts. It would be impossible for her to explain it in simple terms, for the story itself had been rather complicated. It spanned many years and took many twists and turns. She would have no choice but to start from the beginning.


	2. Chapter 1

The smoke rose into the royal plum-colored night sky like an angry exclamation point. At the end of it was a flaming pile of wreckage that had once been a ship. The sole passenger lay unconscious underneath a heavy chunk of metal.

A few yards away in a small house, there was a little girl upstairs in the bedroom, her pale, frightened face looking ghostly in the scant moonlight that shone through the window. She was halfway to her parents' room when she remembered that they weren't there any longer. Still not entirely convinced that this wasn't merely another nightmare, she hesitated just before her bare foot came down on the threshold. On one hand, the lanterns that lined the walls were no longer burning and it wasn't safe to be out after dark. On the other, the monsters that had been threatening the wall hated fire with a passion—she doubted they would come _this_ close even if they'd heard the crash.

 _You only have a minute or so to get him out,_ the Flame whispered to her, _you'd better hurry._

She obeyed it just as she'd been taught. The Flame guided her through the wreckage toward the injured pilot. Her stomach did a flip-flop when she saw the blood glistening in the firelight. There was so _much_ of it. She found his gloved hands—huge compared to hers—and pulled as hard as she could. At first, his wrists slid through her sweaty palms and she fell backwards on her bottom. The second time she tried, she heard a faint groan of pain and protest. She gasped in surprise and froze momentarily when his hands closed around her wrists. She pulled again, getting scared, as the flames were getting closer. This time, he slowly came free from the metal—she got the impression that he was somehow helping her, as he was too heavy for her to do it on her own. With a combination of the adrenaline, the Flame, her willpower, and the _push_ that came from him, he came loose like a cork out of a champagne bottle and landed in a crumpled heap at her feet.

 _Just a little bit further…_

She had to keep pulling, but her momentary strength was starting to fail her. Her arms ached and trembled, protesting the weight. Unfortunately, the stranger's hands went slack and she was forced to stop completely. Coughing from the smoke and still shaking from fear as well as pain, she dropped to all fours in the grass. They were now outside the circle of light that the orange flames were painting. She hurried into the house and grabbed her last lantern. Its ghostly periwinkle light cast a smaller circle, but at least they had light for now.

Kneeling next to him, she rearranged his limbs where they weren't so twisted up. When she tugged up the hem of his trousers, she realized that both of his legs were metal. _That_ explained why he was so heavy. Puzzled, she raised his shirt to see if he had any injuries there. Dark bruises stained his chest and ribs, but none of the bones seemed broken. His arms had a few cuts, but otherwise they were all right as well. The worst was his head—a giant gash had opened from the base of one horn and spread all the way across in a diagonal streak to the other eye. She cleaned it out as best as she could, then cradled his head in her lap. Placing both hands over the cup (and trying not to think about how yucky his blood felt), she concentrated hard on the Flame.

 _Heal._

Blue-white sparks crackled around her fingertips. Her palms heated and began to glow faintly. The whole world seemed to be fading away around her. She could hear her heart beating in her ears as she prayed to the Flames to help this strange horned man. The bleeding slowed, then finally stopped. She wanted to keep going, but she felt cold and dizzy. It was the best she could do for now. She hated to leave him here, but she went back into the house once more. She scrubbed his blood off of her hands, then climbed up to the cabinet to get the medicine her mother would give her sometimes when she had a fever or a stomachache. Maybe it would help him, too. She had to let it fall from the spoon one drop at a time to keep from choking him, but his breath stopped being so ragged afterward—surely it was helping. Unable to think of anything else, she spread a blanket over her charge and sat with her back resting against the house. She didn't mean to, but she fell asleep.

The memories were brief and fragmented. At one time, he heard the word _heal_ , though this could have been a hallucination. A flash of light and warmth flowed through his body. Though it didn't completely take away the horrendous pain, it blunted it significantly. He remembered the taste and smell of the medicine and the way he'd rapidly dropped into the darkness once more afterward. Occasionally the pain returned, permeating the darkness. As hard as he tried to hold onto it, whatever was with him seemed intent on knocking him out again. At one point, he even tried to swat it away, but whatever it was managed to avoid his clumsy hand. The medicine came despite his weak resistance in trying to turn his head away.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been out for, but other sensations began to make their way up alongside the pain. He was badly dehydrated and his throat was getting steadily more sore. The smoke inhalation had not helped. Hunger manifested in an extremely acidic and burning stomach. He had been under such conditions before, but he could only remember one other time he'd been _this_ helpless. That was the part that bothered him the most—the memory of losing his mind in the midst of a junkyard. He tried to fight his way back up, but something was short-circuiting his aggression, dimming it to mere annoyance.

Someone was pressing the mouth of a canteen against his lips. He had just enough lucidity to realize it was better not to fight it. It washed away the rustiness from the smoke and doused the acidic pain in his stomach. It also helped to clear his mind just a tiny bit more. He could feel someone's tiny hand cupping the back of his head to support it. Reaching out with the Force, he tried to sense his environment. He could make out several primitive animal-minds beyond what appeared to be a wall. The one closest to him, the one persuading him to drink, was more intelligent but still less developed than he expected. It wasn't exactly primitive, though. If _innocent_ had been a word in Maul's vocabulary, he would have used it.

 _This is a child,_ he realized.

The surrounding landscape started to come into view in his mind's eye. There were several dwellings, an enormous wall surrounding the perimeter, and a larger building whose purpose was yet unknown. He heard no activity, however—the silence was utterly damning. He felt uneasy but didn't quite know why.

As he searched further, he was starting to come to a dark conclusion. First, he was one of the most well-known infamous people in the galaxy. No parents would let a child around him if they were in their right minds. The second thing directly related to the first—a wrecked ship was _dangerous_ for all kinds of reasons. The adults of the area would probably go out of their way to keep the children out of the wreckage even if they didn't know who he was and thought he was worth saving. Those two things plus the lack of other minds appearing in his Force sense told him that this child was here alone. He wanted to find out more, but even trying to focus as long as he did had drained his energy. He felt himself being pulled into the darkness once more.

Whenever he finally woke all the way up, his head throbbed when he moved. The rest of him was a chorus of complaints—the stump ending of his midsection had been jarred really hard, aggravating the old injury that the accursed Jedi had given him all those years ago. Some of the tubes had been knocked out of place and had to be straightened up. His prosthetic right knee was bent out of shape, but it could be hammered back into place with the right tools. His ribs weren't broken, thankfully, but still very badly bruised and breathing and moving both _hurt._ Trying to force the pain into the background, he looked around at his surroundings for the first time since landing. A basket with the water canteen and some kind of dried meat sat beside the pillow he'd been laying on. The little girl had probably left it—it only took a few minutes for it all to disappear. Feeling a little of his strength return, he struggled to his feet. The little girl was around here someplace—he could feel her presence. Unfortunately, the animals that were lurking outside the fence were also there. There was a weak spot that they were clawing at and they would be getting inside the perimeter before long—maybe less than a day. He reached for his lightsaber only to find that it was missing. With an irritable sigh, he struggled to his feet. It was bad enough that he had to find another ship or some way to put this one back together—not having a way to defend himself in such a weakened state was far, far worse. Ordinarily, regenerating himself was no problem—Zabraks were known for their extremely rapid healing factors, their overall toughness, and not being as easily crippled by their injuries. Perhaps it was their double-hearts or the extraordinarily harsh environments they'd evolved to survive in. For him, it was the Dark Side of the Force and the endless years of training for occasions such as these. What was different this time? The planet itself? The atmosphere? The medicine that she'd given him to ward off the pain?

He tried to stagger toward the remains of his ship, but his legs gave out and he fell. A hiss of pain escaped his clenched teeth. He didn't even notice the little girl coming toward him as a wave of dizzy nausea washed over him. It was then that he felt the two little hands placed on his temples.

 _Heal._

He almost recoiled from her touch. _Almost._ Maul couldn't remember the last time anyone had been allowed to touch him—those who tried usually didn't have good intentions and the consequences had been severe. The girl, however, showed no fear of him and her eyes were closed. The heat and light caught hold again, displacing the pain and the sickness. He was so surprised that he froze.

 _Now it makes sense,_ he reasoned, _she's a Force user…_

It was the first truly good look he'd gotten at her. She was still very young, somewhere around five or six. A cloud of dark, unruly blue-black curls framed her pale face. She wore a simple hooded pale lavender robe. Her overly large green eyes carried a lot of concern. She reached into her pocket and offered him something: she had apparently found his lightsaber. He snatched it out of her hand, hoping it was intact. When he unsheathed it, she jumped backwards, staring at the red beam of energy with a mixture of fear and fascination. At least _now_ he could fight if he had to.

"I see you're not entirely useless," he commented, "I don't suppose you could tell me where to find another ship?"

She pointed in the direction of the wall.

"Come closer."

She did with slow, uncertain steps. Suspecting that she either couldn't or wouldn't speak, his hand hovered over her forehead. In her memories, he saw a neighboring city that was half a day's walk from here. It was formally referred to as Citrina but many of the off-worlders jokingly called it "Crash". Melody's people, the Derelithians, had not been the warmest of hosts and generally regarded them with a great deal of suspicion. It would often take the visitors weeks or even months to get their ships repaired. Overcome by curiosity, the native Derelithians would eventually drop the mask of cold politeness and take a genuine interest in them. Some off-worlders would occasionally get past the plasma storms and land here on purpose, but visitors were far and few between due to Derelith being in uncharted space. The plasma storms had prevented it from being explored and traded with. _Those_ ships might at least be in working order even if they were old. Her father had taken her there once. He could see in her mind's eye the day she'd ridden on her father's shoulders as he'd pointed each one out to her and told her what was special about it. Odd…her father sounded familiar…he _looked_ familiar somehow though Maul was certain he'd never met the man.

Another image came into his mind suddenly—the beasts beyond the wall. They were enormous canine-looking creatures with double-rows of fangs and enormously long claws. Though they could easily scale the walls, they were repelled by the lanterns because that particular frequency of light blinded them. Now that the lanterns were going out, however, they were becoming bolder about trying to get in. He felt her fear that they would get in and come after both of them. She also now knew of his intent to leave the village to find the ships and she was scared they would kill him. He was the first adult she'd seen since she'd woken up from the plague-induced fever sleep and she didn't want to be alone again.

Hearing a growling noise from the other side of the wall broke her mental pleading with him. Suddenly frightened, she tugged hard on his sleeve, trying to get him to follow her. Though the wall still held, they would be safer inside. The temperature was starting to drop as well. He staggered after her, deciding it would be for the best to take shelter. Once they were inside, he bolted the door shut. The sound of the lock engaging seemed to put the little girl at ease at once. She even managed a smile. After finding some tools to help him straighten his leg out, she sprawled across one of the cushions in the floor in the living room to watch him work. This was a very long process, as he had to strip off the plating where his knee hinge was, hammer out the dent in it, and then put it back on. Despite all the noise, she fell asleep about halfway through. It was a relief—he found he could concentrate better without her constantly staring at him. There was also the odd feeling of exposure that came when it was necessary for him to take his prosthetics apart in order to realign everything. Though he'd gotten quite used to seeing flesh and metal melded together, not everyone could handle such things. He also disliked the idea of anyone seeing which areas he was vulnerable in. Once he was done, he stretched out on his side and weighed his options.

 _I could take care of this right now,_ he thought, looking at her sleeping face in the moonlight, _it would be the least cruel way. She's sleeping—she wouldn't even feel it._

Another part of him argued that he could at least use her to get through the forest. She knew her way around better than he did. Then, if he still felt like putting her out of her misery, he could do it once he reached the ship. Though compassion and sympathy were very much alien things to him, the idea of justice was not. She _had_ after all, saved his life (or at least tried to).

 _You have a third choice,_ a voice in his mind said, sounding oddly like Mother Talzin, _you could get her off this plague-infested planet and find out how far her abilities will develop._

 _The Nightbrothers and Nightsisters alive again walking the caves of Dathomir once more…neither the Sith nor the Jedi would see us coming because they believe us to be extinct…._

That idea was more complicated than the first two. It would require a lot of patience and it wouldn't be easy taking a child with him everywhere he went. On the other hand, combining her talents with his spectral mother's might be enough to revive the Nightbrothers and Nightsisters. He supposed it was worth a try. As he dropped off into sleep, the images grew more vivid. Perhaps the Nightsisters would take her in if this idea wasn't as farfetched as it sounded.


	3. Chapter 2

When the skies had lightened from dark plum to lavender, Melody was the first one to wake. Seeing that her "guest" was still asleep, she tiptoed into the kitchen. Much to her dismay, there was no food left—she would have to go and get more. She shuddered at the thought of going into the other houses, but it couldn't be helped. Gathering her courage, she reminded herself that her new friend was hurt—she couldn't very well ask him to do it. Taking her basket on her arm, she headed for the neighbors' house. It had once been clean and bright with its polished walkways and glittering quartz walls, but now the vines were starting to take over. Maybe it would be best if they took the whole place for themselves, she thought.

She pulled the collar of her robes over her face to block out the smell. There were still a few good things in the kitchen, but a lot of the food had been steadily going bad. What was upstairs didn't help, however. She willed herself not to look at the stairs while she was gathering things for the basket.

 _What happens to us when we pass away is that our bodies get left behind,_ she heard her mothers' words echoing in her ears, _and the soul—the actual person—becomes part of the Flame. It's not much fun for us because we miss them and we have to burn their bodies, but it doesn't hurt them and it's nothing to be afraid of._

She wished with all her might that it was true. She had been spared the sight of her friend Gem's body, but her parents had not been so lucky. They had fallen ill shortly after her funeral and they were still upstairs…what was left of them anyway. It had been quite a shock for Melody to walk in on a sight like that. She tried very hard not to think about that day, but the memories washed over her in an unwanted tide. Feeling sick, she raced back out to the fresh air.

When she finally had filled the basket back up, she hurried back to her own house. Much to her dismay, Maul was gone. Rolling her eyes to the heavens, she sighed and put the basket on the kitchen table. It wasn't a good idea for him to be out so soon—her own mother would have made her stay in bed, but she knew that grownups rarely followed their own rules. She hoped his head wasn't hurting too badly. She decided to go and look for him just to make sure.

Maul had woken this time all at once. Looking around the house (which seemed smaller than it had appeared at first), he saw mostly cushions scattered on what was probably the living room floor. What looked like a miniature holocron glowed a soft pale purple on the shelf. He picked it up, running his thumb over the top to open it. Two sets of text stood side by side—one in an unfamiliar alphabet that had curly, twining script and another in the common language. The pieces began to snap into place at once—the first was a type of genealogy. Melody's _father_ had been a _clone._ He must have been one of the few who had escaped Order 66. Melody's mother was a native of this planet, a priestess and apothecary at the local temple. Before her parents had passed away, they were in the process of compiling the teachings in the two different languages. There were different subject categories in here such as history, basic biology, a large body of religious text about the Flame, and a few other things that seemed of lesser importance. The part that interested him the most was something suggesting possible resurrection of the dead (though this sounded more like myth than any real possibility). It was a valuable find and Maul pocketed it. Not many people besides his master knew it, but Maul's intelligence was almost as keen as his fighting ability. Poking a hole in your enemy's strategy was sometimes as simple as getting to know them. He decided to explore a little bit further—the larger building had caught his attention.

The Derelithians' society had developed in an extremely lopsided manner, he noted. There seemed to be absolutely no droids here and transportation was limited. They had numerous holographic screens lining the wall, however, and had figured out how to grow various plants with the absolute minimum of resources and care. They emitted a brilliant multicolored bioluminescence in the chambers of the temple. The largest of the rooms appeared to have been a combination of school, religious services, and meetings. There were scattered cushions along the polished white floors; they were loosely arranged in a circle. To the left was what appeared to be a hospital wing. It was here that he first began to see the remains of the Derelithians. These, he decided, had been the very first victims. They were almost completely decomposed already, still laying neatly beneath their stained sheets. He saw the tablets attached to the metal frames by magnets. It took him a few moments to translate using the holocron he'd found earlier, but it didn't take long to see the pattern: excessively high fever, hallucinations, dizziness, coughing, and rapid metabolism of fatty tissue. The later stages of the disease involved a breakdown of the heart and lungs—many of the sufferers who had survived the initial fever died of cardiac arrest or by drowning in their own blood as fluids filled their lungs. It could take as little as three days for someone to perish from it. The very young and very old had been the most vulnerable. Initially, the first victims had been directly in contact with the beasts known only as "the carriers" but the later ones had never set foot outside the village and had been caring for the first batch of the sick. He noticed that Melody was listed among the victims but she'd been left at home due to overcrowding. Her mother had mentioned that she was going to the city for supplies—she hoped they would have something stronger to help fight the intense fevers. The last entry was dated at least six months ago if time moved the same way here. There was evidence that the healers here had attempted to use the force to cure their patients, but it was usually too late. After going into the right side, he found what looked like a crematorium. The flames had gone out and all that remained were the silvery ashes of someone who had never received a proper burial. It was time to move on.

There was another building that appeared to be a store. This one had caught fire at some point—whether on purpose or accident, he couldn't tell. There were a number of silver coins that they had apparently used for currency spilled all over the floor. Unsurprisingly, each one had an abstracted flame pattern stamped on it. The owner still lay where the roof had fallen in on him. He had likely escaped the plague if he was lucky. The rest of the ruins looked unstable, so he decided not to venture in. It was time to investigate the other side. He was oblivious to the fact that Melody was trying to find him.

At first, it looked to her as if Maul had disappeared without a trace. Melody could still sense him around here somewhere, but she couldn't see him. She could also sense more of those carriers near the fence which was not good. It was the first time she could remember feeling unsafe in broad daylight. She didn't realize how close to the wall that she had actually wandered, however, until it was too late. She only had a second to see the claws punching through the weakened spot where they had been digging—then a snarling puzzle thrust through the falling stone. She ran, but she knew she was nowhere near fast enough to get away from the thing. It was coming—she could hear it getting closer.

Maul was on the other side of the village when a shrill, piercing scream exploded in his mind. He resisted the urge to clamp both hands over his ears, as it would do no good. The scream was entirely mental. Instinctually, he drew his lightsaber just as he saw Melody trip over something and fall. A roughly horse-sized monster was bearing down on her, opening its massive fanged jaws. Without really even thinking about, he Force-pushed it away. The monster's attention turned to him at once and it charged.

Melody's mouth opened in a big, round O. She would have screamed if she had a voice to do so with, but absolutely nothing came out. She couldn't look away even though she very much wanted to. But then, something very surprising happened—she didn't even see him _move_ , but the monster fell in the next second. The nasty smell of scorched fur reached her nose.

More of them were coming. She struggled to her feet—her knee was badly scraped and it hurt enough to make her cry. The world was blurring through her tears, but her gaze never left him. She prayed to the Flame to keep him safe just as she'd tried to do.

BZZZZZZT! BZZZZZZT! BZZZZZZZT!

One after another, the carriers fell. Most of them couldn't even get within arms' length of him. Despite still being hurt, Maul was doing better than most people against the beasts. Suddenly there were only two where there had been five or six. Then there were none. All of them lay still, never to be a danger to anyone again. She wiped her face on her sleeve. It had been one of the scariest things she'd ever seen, but also one of the coolest.

"Don't fall down next time. Your blood will attract more of them," he told her. She looked down as if she'd forgotten entirely that she had scraped her knee.

 _Heal._

The wound shone white for a moment, then sealed itself up. As they were walking, he noticed a cloth-covered figure laying partially hidden by the bushes. Numerous bunches of dried flowers and a burned out lantern had been placed on top of it. Melody averted her gaze from it.

"A friend of yours?" he asked. She nodded, her expression downcast. The image invaded his mind's eye before he could suppress it. He saw a still feverish Melody having staggered out of the house, frightened because no one had been at her side when she'd woken up. The corpse, the woman who was supposed to be taking care of her while her parents were gone, was on her way to her own house to collect some things, as she knew she would be staying with Melody for a while. The symptoms of the illness had been creeping up on her, but in her fear and foolish optimism, she'd chosen to ignore them. She'd collapsed right here as the strain on her body had finally become too much. She had been dead maybe a day or two before Melody found her. Melody, horror-struck, had knelt beside her and concentrated every last ounce of energy she had in trying to bring her back. Unfortunately, it had been too late. She'd tried for hours, but nothing had happened. The woman had simply been dead for too long. After that, she'd trudged wearily into every house that she could to see if any of the others could be revived. None had. She was too small and too weak to give any of them a proper burial, so she had covered them with sheets and flowers and even left some of the lanterns burning beside them. The legend went that when the lantern had finally burned out that the soul had become part of the Flame. Melody's guilt over not being able to help any of her family in this village was immense.

"Guilt is such a worthless emotion," he thought out loud.

She looked up at him questioningly.

"These people didn't die because of anything you did," he explained, "they perished because they were ill. You should be focusing on what you can do now."

 _What can I do now?_ Her expression seemed to say.

"We're going to leave now," he explained to her as he scrubbed the blood off of her leg, "but _only_ on one condition. You must do everything I say without hesitation. If you wander off, it might be the last mistake you'll ever make. Understood?"

She nodded, her green gaze very serious. Before he could ask where she was going, she sprinted upstairs. She was gone for a minute or two. When she returned, there was a little round bulge in her pocket. He supposed she'd gone up there to grab some kind of keepsake. It was starting to sink in that she might never see this place again. He almost told her to leave it behind, that it was better not to have such attachments. At the time, however, it didn't seem like an argument worth getting into. Time was of the essence in a place like this.

 _Later,_ he told himself.

She shrank back a little from the gate. She knew that she was no longer safe staying here, but it was the first time she'd left the gate without her parents. One hand on her shoulder firmly nudged her through it. She looked up at him, hoping for some kind of reassurance, but there was none. Every little noise caused her to cling at first.

"Stop it," he ordered her tersely. If something _did_ happen, he was going to need both hands. Her gaze snapped to the ground; she didn't understand.

 _You will eventually._

They crossed paths with another carrier. This one, thankfully, was alone. Its pack had abandoned it, as it was injured. It still had a very nasty attitude, however, and charged them. Melody barely registered any movement from Maul before the creature fell.

" _Now_ do you see why you can't hold onto me?" he asked her. She nodded; she would have been in the way. He could still feel her nerves, but she was doing a better job of restraining them.

They made good time during the first half of the journey, but Melody started to tire out after that. At first, he slowed his own pace slightly so that she could keep up with him, but she started to trail further and further behind. After a while, it seemed as though they weren't getting anywhere. He urged her to walk faster, but she seemed unable to after a few short bursts. Sighing in annoyance, he started carrying her on his back. The sun, a blue star, was starting to go down. He began to sprint, the dark woods flashing past in blurs of shadowy colors. He felt Melody shaking against his back and it took him a moment to realize that she was _laughing._ It came to a peak when he leapt across a rather big chasm where a bridge had fallen in.

 _At least one of us is having fun,_ he thought sarcastically.

They reached the city gates just as the last of the glow faded over the horizon. They were locked and plastered with signs depicting warnings of quarantine. He was forced to cut through the metal with his lightsaber. They stepped through the roughly oval-shaped hole. Still red-hot, the edges of the metal cast only the faintest light on their surroundings, but that little sliver of light was enough. Illuminated by the hazy scarlet of Maul's lightsaber were her worst nightmares.

Melody's smile died at once.

Things had been bad in her village, but the seriousness of how bad this plague had been had hit its peak here. The streets were littered with corpses, both human and animal. They were in various states of decomposition and several species of carrion-eating birds and rodents had come to feed on them. Numerous vehicles were crashed into walls or simply abandoned. Melody shuddered violently and hid her face in Maul's shoulder. He could feel her hot tears on his neck. This city had once been beautiful. The crystal spires and minarets still rose high above the horizon and they shone softly in different colors, but there were no flying vehicles humming around them and no people going in and out. The open air market, a place that never seemed to sleep, was now dark and silent. The air was heavy with the stench of death. The plague had spread more rapidly here because the population was more dense. He stepped carefully around a skeletal hand that was still reaching futilely towards the gate. Already, the growls from the carriers could be heard. It was time to find a place to stay. The ship would have to wait until tomorrow.

They went inside a house that appeared to have been abandoned for some time and was thankfully free of corpses. Melody slid off his back, though she seemed reluctant to. Her face was flushed from tears and her nose was running. Her grief was coming in bigger and bigger waves as she followed him around like a shadow. He placed her on one of the beds, hoping she would just fall asleep on her own—she was certainly tired enough—but when he turned around, he saw her following him again. She didn't want to be on her own. She climbed onto the bigger bed with him, burying her face in one of the pillows. An odd pang of what could have been sympathy twinged in his stomach. It would be worse in the morning—the dark had at least concealed the worst of it tonight. Tomorrow, she would see _everything._

The next morning was indeed worse. He had trained himself to ignore things in the environment that were irrelevant distractions like the sound of the birds tapping their beaks into decaying flesh and the smell of rotting meat. Melody, however, did not have the advantage of such iron-willed focus. The instant they got too close to one of the bodies, the combined sight, sound, and smell were too much for her. She doubled over and vomited until there was nothing coming up but acid. When it was over, she hid her face in her hands, embarrassed. He urged her forward, wanting to get out of this tomb of a city as much as she did.

The worst moment came just as the hangar became visible. Melody's gaze had become glazed and listless as she retreated mentally into some place that might have insulated her from her macabre surroundings. Unfortunately, her gaze cleared as she appeared to recognize one of the bodies. That mental scream came on so strong that it felt like it was splitting Maul's head open. He saw her run toward the remains of a woman who was laying outside what looked like a hospital. There was almost nothing left of her but the clothes and the skeleton, but that didn't stop Melody from trying in her acute hysteria.

 _HEAL!_

Her palms began to glow, but the skeleton shone for a moment and nothing else happened.

 _HEAL!_

The glow was weaker this time. All that energy was dispersing uselessly into someone who was clearly never coming back.

 _HEAL!_

It was time to put a stop to this. Maul picked Melody up and turned her to face him though she struggled. She struck him, not meaning to, but he was forced to twist her arm to keep her from doing it again. If she could speak, she would have been screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Melody!" he said firmly, accompanied by a small shake. When she was finally looking _at_ him rather than _through_ him, he said, "There's nothing more you can do for her. She's _gone._ "

Melody quivered and made a noise somewhere between a hiccup and a retch. For a second, he thought she was going to throw up again.

"I lost my mother, too," he said quietly, not really sure why he was telling her that, "and the only thing you can do now is to live for both of you. Live the life that she didn't get to. Understand?"

Melody nodded, still shaking and drawing in ragged breaths. He took her a few paces away, enough that she was still within eyesight.

"Don't move from this spot. Understand?"

She nodded. Maul went back to the corpse of Melody's mother. He noticed a bracelet on the woman's wrist. It was a very intricate piece of jewelry with tiny golden vines woven through amethyst-colored gems. As carefully as he could, he removed it. When he returned to Melody, she had sunken to her knees and was crying again. She had gone cold all over and was trembling so much that her legs wouldn't hold her. He was glad that he had learned to turn such things into anger—being _this_ affected could have cost him his life. He would have to teach her not to fall apart this way at some point.

"Here," he said, holding out the bracelet, "take this with you. At least then you'll always be together in some way."

Trembling, Melody accepted it and put it on her own wrist. It was too big and kept falling off, so she was forced to slide it up until it was on her upper arm. Having it seemed to pacify her a little bit, enough that they could go on. She was very subdued after that, her gaze downcast and her emotions dark and turbulent. He blocked them out as best as he could, wishing he could have found her when she was older. He didn't know anything about children, much less how to deal with the storms of their emotions. It was time to make her think about something else.

"Look at all these ships," he commented as they entered the hangar, "which one do you think we're leaving in?"

She pointed at a red and white one that seemed to be in slightly better shape than the others; it appeared to be a Mandalorian gauntlet fighter. Though it still looked pretty old, it was still the most recent one here. He went inside and checked to see if it still had any power. It needed refueling, but everything else seemed in reasonably good shape. When he saw her gaze fixate on the glowing buttons on the console, he pulled her away from it.

"Oh no you don't," he said firmly. Though Maul knew nothing about children, he recognized that expression from his own childhood. It was the one that always preceded grabby, curious little hands. She looked up at him with those big, innocent eyes as if to say _who, me?_

When the ship was stocked with more fuel and a few space rations and water, it was at last time to go. He strapped Melody into her harness. As they left the hangar, Melody strained against the harness, trying to see around her.

"Have you ever flown before?" he asked her. She shook her head. He chuckled darkly. Flying was one of those rare things he experienced anything resembling joy from. He had become a rather adept pilot over the years and had made some pretty impressive escapes. The ship lifted off the ground before making a sharp ascent toward the skies. Melody's eyes widened when she realized they were level with the tops of the skyscrapers. Her little arms flung upward as if she were on a roller coaster. A dark chuckle rose up in his throat—he wasn't sure why it amused him so much.

The atmosphere grew thinner and thinner and the stars became visible through the thinning pale purple clouds. The illusively beautiful aurora pattern flashed and waved overhead, but numerous sensors and alarms beeped at once. He guessed before the console told him: it was going to be a very close call. There was another plasma storm coming in, but he was ready for it this time. He turned sharply, causing the ship to drift slightly. The arcing lightning illuminated the floating wreckage of other ships, but it missed theirs. Melody watched it with wide eyes. She was afraid of lightning. He saw her relax visibly when they sped away from it. Her hand went subconsciously to her mother's bracelet, toying with it.

"Watch this," he said without really knowing why. Melody's gaze turned to him, then to the windshield. Her mouth dropped open as the stars began to pass by in elongated streaks. Suddenly, everything was blurring past in light and dark blue blurs. A squeal of joy burst from her mind like a firework. She was the first Derelithian (that she knew of) to ever set foot off the planet and also the first one to travel through hyperspace.


	4. Chapter 3

Other than the steady hum of the engines and Melody's music box, things had gone relatively quiet in the cockpit. She sat cross-legged in the floor, winding it up again for the third time. The chiming notes it played were soft and quiet like a lullaby. When a faint glow had emerged from behind Maul, he glanced over his shoulder to see a hologram of two people dancing. One was a broad-shouldered man who looked extraordinarily out of place in the traditional Derelithian robes that he wore. Though his hair had grown out a little bit, there was absolutely no mistaking that face—Maul had seen it before.

 _Interesting,_ he noted, _Melody's father was an Imperial Clone Trooper._

The other figure was obviously Melody's mother—they had the same facial structure, the same curly blue-black hair, and the same fair skin. As the figures danced, one of the clone's hands remained resting on the swelling curve of the woman's belly. This hologram must have been made shortly before Melody had been born. He turned back to the console, gradually tuning out the distraction of music and light.

Melody looked up at the back of Maul's chair after a while, seeing him through the hazy ghostly blue images of her parents. Her mind began to turn to what Maul's parents had been like—she remembered that he said he'd also lost his mother. Had she been the same pretty red color that he was? Had she had the markings like his or was that like fingerprints where everyone's was different? Had she had horns, too, or was it something only the boys had? Her mind was full of questions that she dared not yet ask. She was already feeling a little shy, as she'd had to ask him to let her out of the harness so that she could go use the refresher. She'd simply not bothered going back to her chair afterward.

She lay on her stomach, kicking her tiny feet up in the air, and tried to picture Maul's family. What little she knew of genetics (not the word, of course, but the idea) was that little girls tended to look more like their mothers and that boys tended to look more like their fathers. Maul's daddy was easier to imagine. He had probably had the horns and the same fierce golden eyes with the red flame-tendril pattern around the edge of the iris. He was probably tall and strong like Maul and had probably been just as quiet. Though he probably said very little, he was probably very protective of his family like her own father had been. His mother, she imagined, was probably softer, shorter, and rounder. The hard, angular planes of his face were probably more curved on hers and she probably had wider eyes, though with the same brilliant golden color. She had probably been a little bit more talkative, as that's what mothers did best. She wondered how old Maul had been whenever she had passed away.

"We're nearly there," he told her. She sprinted toward the front of the ship, her music box still in her hands. She could barely see over the edge of the console and was trying in vain to stand on her toes. As soon as the ship came out of hyperspace, she bounded into his lap trying to see better. The blood-colored world of Dathomir appeared, looming in front of them like a sleeping giant.

"Get down," he ordered her, "I can't land the ship with you in my way."

Her cheeks pinked apologetically and she slunk back into her chair. When the latch on her harness clicked back into place, he brought the old Mandalorian ship in for a landing. They descended into the rust-colored atmosphere. It was tinted slightly more orange now because the sun was setting here. It wouldn't be long before its twin moons rose over the horizon. As they descended through the atmosphere, Melody seemed to be shrinking back in her chair. Maul didn't have to ask why.

 _She can sense that something happened here,_ he supposed, _the last stand of the Nightsisters…_

The ship touched down on the blowing sands a few paces away from the mouth of the cave. He released Melody from her harness.

"Come."

She looked uneasily at the open door, then back at him. Slowly, she followed him, but she was reluctant to.

The second her bare feet touched the sand, she went pale and seemed to freeze up. Her gaze went glassy. All of a sudden, she was hearing blaster fire and the zing of arrows that were made of pure energy. Droids warbled and went limp as they landed in crumpled metallic heaps. The sisters' dying screams echoed in her mind. Their fury, their fear, and their utter disbelief at what was happening invaded her mind so fast that she was powerless to block the memories. Shuddering, she hugged herself. She was crying again without even realizing it.

Maul turned to see her fall to the sands with a crimson plume of dust coming up around her. With a sigh of annoyance, he picked her up and hauled her into the cave. He hoped it wasn't always going to be like this. Being _this_ sensitive was going to be a major problem.

A green mist had begun to rise from seemingly nowhere. It surrounded both of them and the remnants of multiple female presences began to manifest. The pale imitation of consciousness was all that was left of the Nightsisters.

 _You have returned, Son of Dathomir…and who is this outsider?_

The mist swirled around Melody for a moment. Tendrils reached out toward her face, curling around it like a blind person trying to get a sense of what someone looked like.

"We will see," Maul returned.

 _A force-wielder….very inexperienced…but with power and talent that could be extraordinary…_

Melody stirred as if she were having a nightmare. Maul had to tighten his grip on her to keep from dropping her. She recoiled from the mist, seeming to be afraid of it. That would change with time, of course. There was a dark echoing chuckle from the mist, an almost triumphant laugh.

Maul brought the girl down to where the Nightsisters had once lived. The only source of light other than the vibrant green mist were the rivers glowing with phosphorescent life forms. All the torches had been extinguished long ago. This place was a necropolis, a city of the dead. He'd given every one of the Nightsisters he could possibly find a proper burial, but there were many more who had been lost to time and sand. He placed Melody on the same stone table where he had been reborn years before. He could still remember vividly the explosion of pain that shot through his body as Mother Talzin had put both his broken mind and broken body back together. It had hurt, but it was a cleaner sort of hurting, the kind one gets after a life-saving surgery. This part of the magic would likely interest Melody the most since the desire to repair was so strong in her. He wondered what might happen if Dathomir's life force was combined with this Flame of hers. The results could either be spectacular or the biggest disaster possible—only time would tell. At this point, however, he had absolutely nothing left to lose and it was a risk he was all too happy to take.

The girl stirred, opening her eyes at last. She rubbed them tiredly and sat up.

 _What happened?_ She gestured.

"You let yourself get overwhelmed," he told her, "it is something you'll have to resist in the future. Passing out like that could cost you your life."

She looked at the floor, embarrassed.

"That almost happened to me once. My master took me to a place where the Sith fought the Jedi and lost. He forced me to inhale their ashes so that I might understand their pain. It was like being stabbed with a thousand lightsabers all at once."

Her gaze returned to his, sympathetic.

 _That must have really, really hurt…_

"Not all of it was bad," he answered, "once you truly understand pain, you'll no longer fear it. You'll learn to embrace it, to use it to make yourself stronger."

 _I don't like the sound of that._

"That's because you, like most, misunderstand its purpose."

She pressed her palms against the table. Though a thin sheen of sweat broke out on her face, she didn't cry or pass out this time. She looked up at him, asking him what had happened here.

"This is what I was talking about," he told her, "I woke up in immense pain here. It felt as though I was being ripped apart, but when I woke up, I had new legs and my sanity was restored. My mother was standing here and my brother was here. I knew then that things were already getting better."

 _What happened to your real legs?_

"That's a story for another day. Come."

 _What were your mom and dad like? And your brother?_

"My mother was the leader of this coven. She was the most powerful of all the Nightsisters, and the most intelligent. My father was killed in combat, but I've been told he was one of the best warriors of the Nightbrother clan. They were an excellent match, but I never met him. He was gone before I was born. My younger brother was from a different father, one whom was not quite as intelligent but very adaptable. He was my apprentice for a short time."

 _Where's he at now?_

"He was killed during a fight with the Sith."

He tensed when she suddenly threw both arms around him, hugging him.

 _So you're all alone, too…poor Maul…_

He shoved her away.

"I'm not telling you this because I want your pity," he snapped.

 _You still miss them, don't you? I know I would._

He turned away from her, heading toward the house where Mother Talzin had lived. Normally, males weren't allowed to stay down here, but he doubted she'd mind considering the circumstances. Melody chased after him. She stopped short of hugging him again, but she was still uncomfortably close.

The house didn't have the same stale, disused air as most abandoned places did. Even now, they could both feel Talzin's presence here as if she had merely gone out for a walk and would come through the door any minute. Maul had stayed here for the first two or three years of his life, so he didn't remember much of it. He had been sent to stay with the Nightbrothers as soon as he was old enough. There were two bedrooms upstairs, one for Talzin and one for whatever apprentice she might have been training at the time. Becoming a Nightsister was a deadly endeavor, especially since you had to survive the first test. It involved going underground and hunting The Sleeper, a temperamental creature whose body was steeped in the planet's magic. The task was to retrieve a body part of some kind (not the easiest thing to do, as it was a shapeshifter) and bring it back to brew the Waters of Life, one of the potions that strengthened the Nightsisters' connection to the planet's magic. He wondered what Melody's trial would be since the Sleeper had been killed by the Jedi many years ago.

Melody went up the stairs. In her mind's eye, she could see little Maul still here, the bed replaced by a cradle. He had not yet had his tattoos applied, so he was only one color—red. The red had been lighter when he was little, as the pigments hadn't come all the way in yet. His horns were only tiny little nubs. He had some kind of a toy in his pudgy little hands, but was more interested in gnawing on it than playing with it. He was watching his mother with wide golden eyes as she created little balls of light for his amusement. Occasionally, he would reach up and try to grab one only to be puzzled when his hand passed right through it.

Melody began to laugh. She doubled over, so amused by his expression, that she was shaking from head to toe.

The real Maul appeared behind her as she clutched the door frame for support. At first, he thought she was crying again. When she turned, however, her smile was the biggest he'd ever seen.

"What are you so amused at?"

She showed him, pressing the image into her mind. It was a relief for her to have something, _anything_ that was a positive memory. When it faded, another one replaced it. He was seeing the world from baby Melody's perspective just as she was learning to crawl. Her own mother had created a floating wisp of blue-white fire—the Flame. She'd chased after it clumsily, her hands trying to stretch towards it. This simple game had amused them both for hours. The real Melody closed her eyes, the warmth of the memory heating her palms. She focused that memory into them, feeling the Flame traveling down her arms into them. Maul watched as her palms began to glow. Then….

 _Whoosh!_

A tiny blue-white candle-sized flame appeared between her cupped hands. She stared at it in awe.

 _I've NEVER been able to do that before…_

She held it up to him, bouncing up and down with excitement.

 _Look! I did it! See?_

He stared at it incredulously. How had such an insignificant memory caused that?

Still holding the little flame suspended in one palm, she took his hand in her other one, her palm still glowing.

 _Take it! I made it for you!_

He held out his palm. An invisible sphere of heat radiated there, seeming to contain the flame. It hovered there for a moment, flickering unsteadily. An invisible ripple of unease shot through him, almost as if he had been shocked. The flame was reacting to the darkness.

Then, the fire descended, touching his palm. It began to spread, heating his skin. He watched as it seemed to sink beneath it. Though it vanished, he knew it wasn't _gone._ He could still feel it burning there under his skin. A primitive and ancient consciousness rose up from the depths of his mind to sit beside his own.

 _Be careful with her,_ it whispered, _she is both of our futures, yours and ours…_

Then, it truly dissipated. Maul's hearts were beating a little faster, unsettled by this invasion.

Melody was still smiling at him. Shaking his head as if to clear it, he turned and went downstairs.


	5. Chapter 4

When the plasma storms had thinned out slightly in the area that Maul and Melody had narrowly avoided, three of the ugliest looking ships in existence shot through the lavender atmosphere of Derelith. Though the flashes of light were almost blinding, the orange bubble-like spheres kept the ships from being fried. Finding places to land in Citrine weren't easy, but they eventually managed to find a park, a bridge, and the top of one of the buildings. The leader of this ragtag outfit was a Rodian with skin that was more blue than green. Beside him was a man who was more metal than flesh.

"The distress signal came from somewhere over there…think they're _still_ in distress?" the cyborg man asked with a deep barking laugh.

"If there are any survivors, I'm sure they are," the Rodian replied. His voice was oddly melodic though there was a sinister undertone to it: "they might even give her up willingly."

A third figure emerged behind them. This one, compared to the other two, looked like a diamond among dirty rocks. He wore the white tunic and tan trousers that were common of the Jedi…at least when they were still recruiting people…and he carried a green lightsaber. His brown hair was tied back tastefully with a simple leather band and his green eyes were oddly innocent looking. He was the kind of guy that had a very forgettable face but a trustworthy one. There were details about him that were very carefully concealed—for one, the lightsaber he had was stolen. He had taken it off a battlefield, finding it where it had fallen during the disastrous Order 66. The clothes had been stolen as well and carefully scrubbed and mended so that all the blood and burn marks would never be seen. And underneath this clean, pristine, trustworthy appearance was a man with one of the darkest hearts in history, Sith Lords not included.

His companions laughed heartily. This routine never got old.

"Looking good, Dolos! I like the little ponytail there."

"Just shut up and let's go find the brat," Dolos muttered. As much as he liked playing his games of deception, he wasn't a fan of children. He wondered why the Force always had to be discovered in them—why couldn't it wait until they were fully grown women? Things would be a lot more interesting that way…

He mentally shook himself and tried to get into character. Thinking about the after-sale celebration with its good food, strong drinks, and willing company would have to wait until the girl was on their ship. He replayed the hologram message once again to be sure he had the brat's name right.

"If anyone can hear this…" the woman said, trying to wheeze in a breath, "…we need help…Derelith has been overwhelmed by a very severe plague. I don't know how much longer we're going to make it…if you can, please take my daughter. She's very Force-sensitive. I don't know if there's anyone out there who can train her, but it's worth a shot…she's in this village right here. Her name is Melody. She was born with some kind of birth defect that makes her unable to speak, but she can show you things with her mind…pictures…memories…Please…take her. You can help yourselves to our family's vault in return for raising her. The code is…."

The Rodian was more interested in that part. The bank was just up ahead—there might not be Credits in there, but there would be plenty that could be exchanged, especially from people looking for more exotic items. They would try to get the other vaults open as well—after all, who was going to stop them? It was going to amount to a vast haul, enough to probably double their fleet. This little gang of pirates was nowhere near as extensive as Hondo's had been at its peak, but it was only a matter of _when._ The three men split up with various others following. In all, there were about twelve of them. It took the better part of the day to break open all the vaults and load up all the treasure they could find. It also took them about that long to figure out that Melody wasn't in Citrine.

"These records show that this woman originally came from this smaller village over there," a Mandalorian with beat-up armor remarked, "I suggest we check there. She probably left the girl behind if she was sick."

One team went to the village. The other team remained in the city checking out the hangar of ships that they had stumbled upon. The computers had updated about six months ago though there hadn't been a new ship in here for years. It had registered that one had gone missing yesterday.

"You don't think…" the cyborg asked.

"No," the Rodian agreed, "I don't."

Just then, a transmission came in. It was from the Mandalorian and the others who had gone to search the village.

"Well?"

"She's not here, Sir. We've checked all the houses and inside the chapel. We _did_ find something else, however."

The hologram showed the burned-out remains of a ship that had recently smashed into the ground there.

"I've seen this ship before…at least I _think_ I have," the Rodian remarked, "do me a favor and retrieve the black box. I want to see if my theories were correct."

Later that night as they took shelter from the intensifying cold and the restless carriers whose corpses were starting to pile up, they uploaded the data from the black box to their own computer.

"I don't believe it…" the cyborg exclaimed, "it's the _Gauntlet…_ also known as the _Nightbrother._ "

"So the little girl is missing," the Rodian thought out loud, "and so is another ship as well as its _pilot._ That seems to be a few too many coincidences."

"How do we know that the carriers didn't eat her?" asked the cyborg.

"We found burn marks on the bodies of the carriers that were in the village," a woman spoke up, "and they matched the wounds you'd find from a lightsaber—instantly cauterized. In one of the houses, there were also signs of recent activity—fresh food and water—and there were a couple of things missing. Things that could have been personal affects like pictures or holocubes or something."

"So let's just say that this mad theory of yours is correct," Dolos pointed out, "even if that _really_ was Maul and he _really_ took that little girl with him, why would he do that? Just why? She'd be more trouble than she's really worth."

"She's Force-sensitive."

"That's not enough."

It was the cyborg who finally came up with an answer.

"What if he wanted to train her? It would make sense, wouldn't it? The Sith are dying off and there's always got to be two of them. It's also not exactly a secret that he's missing his lower half. Maybe he thinks she'll eventually be able to put him back together."

The more they talked, the more crazy it sounded. The more crazy it sounded, the more they strangely warmed to the idea. After a lot more alcohol, they were debating the possibility of Maul having taken Melody to Dathomir where he had come from. It occurred to them that going to Dathomir might not end well and at best it was incredibly risky. They would have to figure out some way to separate the two if they wanted their prize. The worst part was not knowing for sure—Maul didn't have qualms about killing children—he had done it before just to draw Obi-Wan out. There was always the possibility if it had been him that he had killed the girl, too. There was only one way to find out…

 _Meanwhile…_

There were a lot of things that Maul didn't know about children. He learned quite a few things on the first day alone: that growing little girls, when they haven't had enough food for several weeks, can easily eat more than a fully grown male Zabrak (which by itself is rather impressive). Said little girl can then go sprinting around outside without ceasing, apparently thinking her shadow is a separate being from her that she can outrun. Then he learned that children can fall asleep in the most ridiculous of places in the most ridiculous of positions. Melody had been hoping that she could coax him into one of her games, but he hadn't moved from his meditation. Half of the trick was ignoring all the distractions around him. By the time he was done, he discovered that there was a crown of glowing flowers placed delicately over his horns and Melody was nowhere to be found. Tossing the flower-crown aside, he called to her, but she wasn't listening. By the time he found her, she had fallen asleep in the cupboard under the sink.

 _Do I even want to know how you got squeezed in there?_

He left the door partially open, but otherwise left her as he found her.

 _Do you remember when you used to do things like that?_ Mother Talzin's voice echoed faintly in his mind.

"No," he answered honestly.

 _It is a shame what they took from you. This is a part of you that you'll never know._

The green mist flowed around Melody. She stirred a little, but her reaction wasn't quite as bad as it had been the first time. When she woke, her expression only held curiosity. Then, she realized that the cupboard door was open and grinned up at him.

 _You found me! You should go hide now! I bet you're really good at it with those black clothes._

Maul almost said no. It was on the tip of his tongue. But the next thing he knew, he was crouching in the shadows with his hood pulled up to conceal his supernaturally gold eyes. Melody had walked right past him once already. He felt the probing of her mind rippling at the edge of his like a child causing ripples in a pond by poking its surface. Unfortunately for her, Maul had gotten accustomed to concealing his true nature from the world. If anyone had sensed what he was, he'd be attracting attention everywhere he went and causing people to become immediately guarded and distrustful.

Melody stood only a few paces from where he was now. She stared hard into the darkness. The green mist, she noticed, was back. It swirled around them for a few minutes…but _then…_ it seemed to be moving in a certain way.

 _That's weird…_

She followed it. It was then that she had gotten close enough to sense him. If she could have made any noise, she'd have shrieked with laughter when she pointed at him.

 _She'll learn more quickly through these little games of hers,_ Mother Talzin pointed out.

"Not with you _helping_ her," he said accusingly. Both she and Melody were having a good laugh at his expense.

He found her under one of the beds shortly afterward. She had been clinging to the inside of the frame so that she wasn't as easy to spot right at first. It was an impressive move for a child so young, but she was dismayed that her turn ended so quickly.

 _How did you find me so fast?_

"Simple," he replied, "you have a very _loud_ mind."

 _I do?_

"Do you remember that day when the carriers came and you panicked? I could hear that all the way across the village. The same is true for your laughter."

 _Oh…._

"If you don't want to be found, you have to make your mind as quiet as the rest of you."

She nodded solemnly, taking this advice very much to heart.

The next turn that she had, she tried not to laugh either inside or out. She thought about the shadows concealing her there behind the altar.

 _I have a shadow, too. And right now, she and I are the same person…_

She supposed he _must_ be coming, but she couldn't feel him. All she could feel was this bizarre _emptiness._ It was like there was a hole in the air where he should have been, but she couldn't quite figure out _where._

 _Dark. I am the dark,_ she thought.

He moved so quietly that she couldn't hear any footsteps. It was actually beginning to get a little scary.

 _I should ask him how he does that someday._

One second, she was completely alone. Then, suddenly, he was there as if he had teleported.

 _I guess I need to practice more,_ she lamented, brushing dust off of her robes.

Except for the first time when Mother Talzin had ratted him out, she had _not_ been able to find him though she had really tried. There were plenty of times when she'd walked right past him. Maybe she should start looking where the _nothing_ had been.

On her next turn, she got a chance. Instead of wandering around blindly, she stayed where she was.

 _Where's the nothing? Where's it missing?_

Her mind's eye showed the world around her as a swirling dark fog. Animals and plants showed up as lighter patches. Then, she felt a place to her right where the fog was a little bit thinner. She couldn't see anything there. But her intuition told her that there was.

 _Aha…_

She stared hard into that spot. She couldn't see him. Even when she got closer, she couldn't see him. One hand stretched out tentatively, feeling along the rock wall of the cave. Then, the back of her hand grazed cloth.

 _I did it…I actually found you!_

The cold dark presence that she associated with him got stronger. She could see him now in her mind's eye as a shadowy smudge in the mists. Mother Talzin's amused laughter echoed in both their minds.

 _The Nightsisters were very skilled with things like this,_ she told Melody, _I will show you someday._

The tiniest little smile tugged at the corner of Melody's mouth. She imagined what it would be like to go anywhere in the galaxy without a soul knowing where she'd been.


	6. Chapter 5

The day that the pirates came, Maul had been onboard the old Mandalorian ship making repairs. Though they were doing all right on supplies, he knew better than to leave such things to the last minute. Melody was outside playing between the ship's doorway and the mouth of the cave. She had found a stick and was drawing designs in the sand. Much to her chagrin, the wind kept blowing her designs away unless she dug them very deep. She was in the process of sketching the outline of the ship when she saw something she didn't expect to see.

Her mother was walking so delicately over the sands that she nearly seemed to be floating. Melody stared, unable to process what she was looking at. Her heart, small thudding red thing as it was, seemed to swell up painfully until it displaced the air in her lungs and throbbed in her chest. Her little arms stretched toward her mother, wanting so desperately to believe that she was truly back from the dead. In her tiny child's mind, she had not yet accepted that such things might not be possible. She began to walk in trembling steps, then she began to sprint. The wind was blowing as hard and ceaselessly as it always seemed to, so even her tiny footsteps made no noise at all. Her mother squatted, arms held out for Melody, her smile eager and warm.

 _EEE-hee-hee!_ Her soul was all one big joyous scream. She couldn't wait to tell her mother about her new friend Maul, about the adventures they'd had in the short few days they had known each other. No sooner had she brushed her mother's outstretched fingertips, however, something stung nastily in the back of her neck. Melody tottered, her smile only faltering slightly. Upon closer inspection, she realized that something was not quite right…by the time she realized that her mother's face was the wrong shape, lacking in a delicate triangular chin and the full lips that kissed her forehead every night, she felt the world going dark and her limbs seeming to turn to water.

Maul didn't realize anything was amiss at first. Zabraks are known for their single-mindedness which had made him an exceptional Sith Apprentice at one time. However, right about the time that Melody had been scooped up and slung over the impostor's shoulder like a sack of flour, an odd feeling similar to cold water trickling down the back of his neck had invaded his consciousness. He straightened from the gutted panel he'd been kneeling by, a mess of exposed wires and gears spilling out onto the tile. When he appeared in the doorway, it was already too late—the pirates had taken off. The ceaseless winds were already starting to cover Melody's tracks. He could see where she had been standing just a moment ago, the elaborate swirls she'd been drawing rapidly disappearing as the sand smoothed over again. The stick she'd been drawing with lay abandoned.

He ran.

In two or three long strides, he reached the spot where Melody had encountered the hallucination of her mother. There were bigger tracks here, several adult-sized ones. They had only not melted away because the rocks shielded them from the wind. Unfortunately, the trail went cold after that. Somewhere further away, he heard the faint hum of an engine. Growing steadily more affronted with whomever was behind this, his speed increased exponentially as he chased the sound. Whoever had trespassed here would pay.

He was fast, but not fast enough. Three of the ugliest ships in the galaxy bulleted out of the swirling red atmosphere just before he could reach them.

"I can't believe we did it," Dolos exclaimed, yanking off the dark blue wig and tossing it aside, "this is going to make for some great bragging rights later!"

"Who's going to believe _you_ , O Pretty One?" The cyborg teased him. Dolos, despite the removal of the wig, still looked very feminine in his pretty lavender dress. He puckered his lips and kissed his middle finger before flashing it at the cyborg. The crowded galley erupted in gritty guffaws and wolf whistles.

"And now," the Rodian said, "we can celebrate."

They sped away from the swirling red planet, blissfully unaware that there would soon be someone after them, someone who was this galaxy's equivalent to the Grim Reaper.

When Melody awoke in the ship's brig, she was feeling so confused, heavy, and chilly that she wondered if she was sick again. It took an enormous effort just to open her eyes. When she did, she realized that nothing here looked familiar.

 _Maul?_ She called tentatively. If her voice had been spoken, it would have been weak and tremulous with unshed tears.

 _Mommy?_

Surely everything was going to be okay. She just needed to find her mother. She was loathe to give up the meager warmth of the hard bed she was laying on. Her body broke out in goosebumps the second her bare feet hit the cold metallic floor. The air smelled stale and damp down here and everything had this odd sweaty dampness to it. She clutched at the bars of her cell uncertainly, then rattled them noisily. But nothing happened and no one came.

 _MAUL!_ She yelled it this time in a broken, pleading voice. Though she didn't understand what had happened between that moment and now, she understood that being away from him was probably where things had gone wrong. She should have gone to get him first before she went to see her mother. He would have been annoyed at first, but glad to reunite them, right? She was now shivering violently and starting to cry. Her hysteria had budded but not yet bloomed fully, and it only took a whisper to stop it.

 _Melody,_ a quiet and sinister voice responded, _stop screaming and show me where you are._

Sniffling, she nodded. Maybe it was only her imagination, but hearing his voice calmed her slightly just the same. She looked around, focusing on the barred door of her cell, the hard bed, and the lidded bucket. Just beyond the bars of the cell were other cells and the shadowy rectilinear shapes of crates and bins of all kinds. There was a stairway leading up to a door that had a small glowing panel beside it but not much more. There was barely any light at all down here—everything was the same suffocating gray-black.

 _What do I do now?_ She asked him, but the door at the top of the stairs slid open, interrupting whatever faint connection she might have had with him.

"You're awake," the voice of a shadowy man remarked. He switched on a light and Melody got a good look at his face for the first time. She blinked owlishly up at him, still clinging to the bars. There was a sick lurch in her stomach as she studied his face.

 _I've seen you before someplace…_

The man approached the cell.

"Now, if I let you out of there, are you going to be a good little girl?"

She nodded—even as young as she was, she knew there was only one answer to a question like that. He punched in a few numbers in the keypad of her cell and she let go of the bars. They receded into the walls and she hastily left it. It was _cold_ down here.

 _Where's my Mom?_ She asked warily, projecting a picture into his mind. He stared at her for a second, obviously having to think about where it had come from.

"Oh. _Her._ Well…you'll see."

She followed him up the stairs—and immediately wished that she hadn't. It was crowded and noisy up here. The light hurt her eyes and the smell was overpowering. There were all kinds of people doing all kinds of things, some of which she didn't really understand. That one lady over there seemed far too old to be sitting in that guy's lap. Another one was snoring loudly, his drink pouring out of the tilted glass in his hand.

"Hey, Dolos, she wants her Mommy," her prison warden remarked to a guy standing near a bar. He turned and Melody's face fell. _Now_ she understood what had happened. The man who stood in front of her had the same green eyes and she began to recognize what he had looked like under the makeup. Her hands pressed to her mouth when she saw the discarded wig by his feet. Though Dolos was no longer dressed as a kind Derelithian woman, this evidence alone was damning.

"Sorry to disappoint you," he said sweetly, "but you didn't really want to stay with _that_ guy, did you? I mean he's killed all sorts of people, a few of 'em were even your age."

Melody shook her head, her eyes wide.

 _No._

"Ask him yourself if you ever see him again. He's way more dangerous than we are. We did you a favor by getting you out of there, Sweetie."

He moved to touch Melody's face and for reasons she didn't know, she smacked his hand _hard._ The false saccharine smile that Dolos wore dissolved into annoyance immediately as the others laughed. In the next second, Melody found herself in the floor with the whole right side of her face stinging as reflexive tears bubbled up.

"Didn't your mom and dad teach you ANY manners?" he asked.

 _Did yours?_

But he didn't seem to hear her. All around her, people were _laughing._ They were _laughing_ like this was all somehow funny. Melody started to cry—this kind of crying, however, was a furious cry. The absolute injustice of it all hit her suddenly and she wished more than ever that she were back on Dathomir with Maul. Maul would never let these guys hit her like that.

As the ship slowly but surely began to close the gap, Maul tried to see beyond the boundaries of Melody's simple child-perspective. Any clue she could give him at all would help. Unfortunately, she couldn't see the exteriors or the controls of the ship and what she _could_ see of the interior was poorly lit. The pirates didn't seem to be primarily one race—they were a mixed pot of outcasts.

Whenever Melody discovered that she had been tricked, he felt her withering, hot shame followed by her indignation that someone could do something so _mean._ The impact of the slap caught him off guard slightly—it dazed him for a second, causing his right ear to ring slightly.

 _There it is…_ Melody's anger flashed inside him like a thunderbolt. There was an almost breathless anticipation. What would she do? How would she react? Adrenaline surged through his veins reflexively. Anger in his case had always served him well, feeding fire into his blood and making him one of the absolute scariest, most overpowering individuals in the universe. _No one_ faced him and walked away unscathed—about ninety-eight percent of them drew their last breaths at his hands. Unfortunately, Melody had no idea what to do with all that fury and adrenaline. She could only cry as she was dragged back into the cargo hold and slung haphazardly into her cell. She hit the floor and bumped her nose, crying more and growing more angry as it bled.

 _Ow…ow….ow…._

A savage-sounding snarl rippled through his throat in response to the explosion of pain in his face, pain that he felt vicariously. It was odd feeding his strength through someone _else's_ pain, but he had done it before. He would enjoy killing all of them.

 _Heal…_

Melody put her slightly glowing hands over her nose. Though the pain faded quickly, there was nothing to wash the dried blood off with in here. She buried her face in her pillow, wishing with all her might that things were different. She prayed to the Flame.

 _Please let him find me…let him find me even if I'm in really big trouble…I don't mind, I swear it…_

The Flame was silent. Melody lay there for what seemed like forever. When someone came down to leave her food, it went untouched. She lost track of time while she was down there. At some point, she fell asleep but she was unsure of how long. When they dragged her from her cell again, they had landed someplace. She was put in some kind of cage and wheeled on a trolley to a very big room where various other people were also in cages. A rather scary-looking creature that looked like the world's biggest housefly leaned in and inspected her.

"Prove that she can do what you say and _then_ I'll pay you."

His voice was dry and raspy like the way a flame crackles. The Rodian pushed Melody's cage next to one that she thought was empty at first. A man lay there, his eye swollen shut and his body covered in cuts and bruises. He had clearly put up a fight when he'd been captured. Melody could just barely reach him through the bars.

"Go on," the Rodian urged, "Help that nice man."

 _Heal._

Her hands were shaking, but the man stirred. He blinked when he realized he could use both eyes and looked up at them fearfully. The bruises began to fade from livid purple to sickly yellow. In another few seconds, they were almost invisible.

"Well?" The Rodian pressed.

"You've got a deal."

Melody was made to heal each one of the slaves, as the prices would be better for able-bodied ones who were marginally attractive rather than having faces like raw meat. When they were all better and she thought she was going to pass out, she slumped against the side of her cage and was wheeled out onto what looked like a giant stage. The stage itself was bathed in bright light, but the audience was mostly in shadow. The air stank of liquor and unwashed bodies. People were shouting out bids trying to outdo each other.

"Forty-thousand credits!"

"FIFTY THOUSAND!"

"Sixty-five thousand!"

"Seventy-thousand!"

The world seemed to have cobwebs draped over it. She saw things through fuzzy strands of gauze, the color rapidly leaching out of it.

"Eighty-thousand."

The bid went to a man dressed in a gray suit. He had a hat whose brim came down over his brow, shielding his eyes from view.

"Do I hear eight-five? Eighty five? Do I hear eighty-five? Going once! Going twice! SOLD!"

He banged his gavel against the podium. Melody's cage was unlocked, but by then, she couldn't have moved if she wanted to. Two people hauled her out by the arms—she couldn't remember who no matter how she tried—and she found herself facing the gray man and the scariest-looking droid she had ever seen.

"Follow me," he instructed her.

She didn't have to be told not to disobey. The droid was looking at her in a rather threatening manner if that was possible. Looking as if she were wearing the weight of the world on her shoulders, she slowly padded after them.

Maul's ship burst out of hyperspace. He reached the auction site just as things had wrapped up for the night. It took him a while to find out who was in charge, but he eventually tracked down the auctioneer. It didn't take much persuasion to get the man to spill the beans—Maul only had to lift him by the throat to get him to talk.

"She was captured by an Imperial officer for eighty-thousand credits! I think they might be on their way to Mustafar!"

Maul dropped the guy roughly and returned to his ship.

 _I had hoped never to return there. I still don't have to, really._

So she could heal…there must be others out there like her that weren't going to cause _this_ much trouble, people that weren't this coveted by pirates and the black-market slave trade. But that girl was _his._ He wasn't about to let this go so easily. For some odd reason, he felt very possessive of her. He jumped to hyperspace again, trying to see inside her mind once more to follow her progress. It would be easier to find her if he saw where she'd been taken.


	7. Chapter 6

Later on, Melody would be unable to recall much of what happened on the burning planet. A sickly heat had settled itself inside her, squeezing her throat and crowding her lungs. She was coughing noisily by the time they reached Mustafar. Gaze glassy and fever-bright, she peered over the side of the bridge at the rushing lava below. For a moment, she saw two figures there. Then, she blinked as one of the guards shoved her forward roughly and they vanished.

 _This is a sick place…_ she thought miserably, _something very bad happened here._

She was led through a labyrinth of hallways to what looked like a medical bay. She wasn't sure how long she lost awareness for, but someone had put her in a hospital gown that had to be knotted at the hem; there were no child-sized clothes here. The droids ran various tests and gave her a shot to bring down her temperature. She lay limp and unresisting as they moved her into quarantine, as they didn't want to risk spreading an unknown pathogen. The initial shot didn't work, so they gave her a different kind of medicine.

 _Heal…_ she thought dimly, but she only shimmered faintly for a second. Nothing changed. Sleep claimed her quickly. Her breath was fast and ragged when she went into unconsciousness. And she began to dream one very bad thing after another.

The first thing that she dreamed was that there were two men with lightsabers fighting over the lava. The older one clearly didn't want to fight and was pleading with the younger one to change what he was doing—she couldn't understand what they were shouting at each other. When she saw the younger one's eyes, though, a chill shot through her. They were an unnaturally bright gold, very much like Maul's eyes were. There was something truly chilling there. At some point, the younger man fell. Though she wanted to help him, she couldn't get to him fast enough and she missed grabbing his hand by a fraction of a second. He fell toward the lava. Though he didn't land _in_ it, the superheated air was enough that it still burned him. Skin began to redden angrily, blackening and blistering in places. His clothes burned away. The pain he felt—and she, vicariously—was beyond anything she'd ever experienced. When she ran toward him, however, he seized hold of her and dragged them both into the lava.

The second dream that she had was of Maul. She was walking around this place trying to avoid being seen—the lava man was still out there, she knew, and she was afraid of him. She found Maul gazing out the window. He was younger in this dream—he was, in fact, the same age that she was. Breathing a sigh of relief that she'd found him, she pounced on him and hugged him even though it made her cough.

"Stop it," he protested, shoving her away, "who are you, anyway?"

 _You don't remember me? I'm Melody,_ she said, righting herself, _listen, we have to get out of here. Somebody really bad is going to get us if we don't._

"I'm not going anywhere," he said flatly, "I couldn't even if I wanted to."

 _Why?_

"My master won't let me. It's against the rules for me to go anywhere without him."

 _Who's your master? Maybe we can get him to get rid of that scary lava man._

Footsteps were approaching. Melody tilted her head curiously, but Maul's reaction was a lot more drastic. He dragged her toward the grate of an air vent and yanked its cover up on its hinges.

"You have to leave _now,_ " he hissed, "if he catches you in here, we'll both be in big trouble!"

He closed the grate and hurried back to the window as if he had been doing nothing this entire time. A man in a black hooded robe appeared around the corner. Though Melody couldn't see his face because the lighting was so dim, she immediately feared him as much as she feared the lava man. Maybe they were even the same person.

"You look out of breath, Maul," he commented, "what have you been doing?"

"Practicing like you told me to, Master."

He stretched out a small red hand and levitated a book that was sitting on a small table. The book trembled at first, but sailed into his outstretched palm with relative ease after that.

"Hmm," was the only reply. Maul watched him pass around the corner, then visibly relaxed. When he had made sure that the coast was absolutely clear, he knelt next to the vent where Melody still hid.

"Why can't he sense you? I thought he'd find you for sure," Maul remarked.

 _I don't know…a lot of weird things have been going on lately. First those nasty pirates and then that lava guy…won't you come with me? Please?_

"I just _told_ you that I _can't._ " This was said through gritted teeth, but Melody could sense differently. He _did_ want to come…and he wanted her to stay. If she left, he was convinced he would never see her again. She was the first other child he'd ever seen around here.

 _Yes, you can. We'll go on adventures together and you don't have to worry about anything ever again,_ she persisted. A brief flash of fear welled to the surface, but he quickly suppressed it.

 _I could go home,_ he thought. He had only the vaguest recollections of his mother—the sound of her voice, the way she smelled, and more importantly, the gentleness in which she had hugged him. He knew he wasn't supposed to miss her, but he did. Hoping he wouldn't live to regret this, he opened the vent's cover and crawled in after her.

"Let me in front—I know my way around better than you do," he demanded. With a lot of awkward squeezing, they managed to switch places. She wondered how he could see where he was going as dark as it was.

"There's a lot of floors here and some really big drops," he warned, "so don't fall like an idiot and get us caught."

 _You're in front,_ she ribbed him, _shouldn't it be you we're worried about falling?_

There was a puff of silenced laughter from between his lips.

"I won't fall," he assured her, "I know how to catch myself with the Force."

The theory was soon tested—he went headfirst down a shaft, as he had forgotten there was a vertical drop here. She cringed, waiting for the inevitable _thud_ , but none came. Instead, he hovered in the gap and was able to pull himself up on the other side.

"See?" he said shakily, causing her to laugh silently.

They were crawling around in the dark for a long time. After a while, it was safe for them to emerge in what looked like a hangar. There were dozens of ships here, and a lot of droids. Maul watched which boxes were being loaded onto which ships. He gestured for her to get in one. Then, he squeezed in beside her and pulled the top back over them both. Both were shaking with silent laughter that they were about to get away with something when things went terribly wrong.

 _Someone's coming…_ Melody lamented. The box had been put down; they both peered out from a crack inside the lid. Melody screamed when something simultaneously yanked the lid off and grabbed both of them.

She woke with a jerk, shaking all over and pouring off perspiration. The dreams had seemed so real that she still felt the phantom hand seizing her by the throat. Instinctively, she looked sideways in the direction that child-Maul had been, but he wasn't there. She felt like crying but she was too exhausted to even do that.

 _Melody,_ a voice echoed faintly in her mind, _can you find a way out of this room?_

It was _him,_ the real him. She shook her head as if to clear it and looked around. There didn't seem to be a way—there were no windows, doors, or air shafts here. She sighed.

 _I don't see one…are you coming soon? I feel awful…_

She wasn't sure if he never answered or if she simply fell asleep again. The dreams continued, but they were more fragmented and harder to understand this time. The lava man was a frequent visitor, as was the cloaked man. She ran into child Maul a few more times, but she couldn't remember what they were doing this time. She only remembered that he had been crying one of those times, his body covered in burn marks.

When she next woke fully, she still felt _strange_ , but the fever was gone—at least for now. Someone had given her a bath and put her in a clean gown. Some kind of gel that would replace any lost nutrients was rubbed on her skin. She was led by two soldiers into a big chamber. Her footsteps faltered when she got closer, but she wasn't sure why. There was something in there that was making her very, _very_ nervous. One of the soldiers impatiently shoved her through the door and it slid closed with an ominous whoosh behind them.

It didn't take but a split second for him to sense the child's growing hysteria. An invisible tendril shot out from his consciousness, seizing hold of her will and smothering it like a heavy blanket. She fought him, of course, both physically by trying to run back toward the door, and mentally by resisting the dark fog that he draped over her mind. When his hold on her was absolute, she staggered like a downed bird and dropped to her knees on the carpet. Even then, she wouldn't look him in the face until he made her do it.

 _It's the Lava Man…_ her consciousness wailed despairingly. Even though he was completely hidden by all this black, heavy armor, she just _knew._ He turned that flame-colored gaze on her and she felt her soul icing over. The worst part was that she couldn't do _anything,_ couldn't even so much as close her eyes. The Lava Man raised an arm as if reaching out to touch something, then she realized she was being lifted into the air. He was all the way across the room from her, but she floated weightlessly. This would have been amazing and fun if she hadn't been so frightened—it was the first time she'd ever flown before. The Lava Man _pulled_ somehow and she shot toward him like a bullet, coming to a stop within arm's reach of him. She never made a sound beyond a startled gasp, but her wide green eyes told him everything. His other hand hovered over her forehead as if he meant to pat it, but he stopped just shy of actually touching her. She felt that invasive presence in her head again and tried to squirm away from it. It was no use—he saw all of her memories. He saw her parents when they had still been alive. He saw the temple priestesses showing Melody how to fix broken bones and heal very nasty burns and seal shut gaping wounds. He saw her eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new baby. He saw her noticing more and more plague victims before she herself came down with it. He saw the night that Maul's ship had crashed into the village and how she had healed the gash on his forehead. And he saw that while her symptoms were suppressed, she still had the plague and would never fully be rid of it until someone came up with a cure.

Melody tried very hard not to touch his mind with hers. She didn't _want_ to know. The fact that he was the lava man (or monster) was bad enough. The Flame shrank away from him, averse to the dark aura that permeated him. She began to feel a strange kind of death about him, the kind where the soul has died but the body keeps living somehow. It _hurt_. It hurt in ways that she couldn't even begin to understand. And it was through that dark, swirling cloud that she could see his memories as well—innocent people that he had killed, many of them children that were as young as she was—and the very same woman that he had initially tried to save. She began to sob, clutching at her chest. Her heart felt like it was going to burst. She wasn't sure what had happened after that—she blacked out. It was too much for her.

The "lava man" as she had come to call him lowered her to the floor. Her skin was leached of color now, her face the color of cold ashes. He wondered why it was that she had no fear of this ex-Sith Maul whenever Maul had killed more people than he had. Though he had yet to meet this infamous Maul in person, his master had occasionally told him stories of what had once been a promising apprentice. The objective was to avoid making any of Maul's mistakes.

And now, he thought, there was a chance that Maul might come here looking for his stolen apprentice. Apprentice of _what_ exactly was unknown. But the little girl had a lot of potential. There were a lot of places that she could go without being recognized in addition to her other abilities. She was also a mute which meant that she would be much harder to press for information. Now it was just a matter of immunizing her to his presence so that she wasn't constantly passing out like this.

Neither of the soldiers wanted to ask the question, but they were relieved when they were instructed to take her back to the medical bay and keep her there for now. One of them carried her bridal-style. She was breathing so shallowly that he stopped to check her pulse a couple of times. Her temperature was coming back up.

Maul had been forced to land his ship a fairly big distance away to avoid being detected. Even moving as fast as he could, it still took an hour or two to reach the base. Once there, he noticed that there seemed to be a lot of extra security. When he felt the dark Sith presence there, he understood why.

 _That must be the infamous apprentice I've been replaced with,_ he thought darkly, _I suppose we'll see if he's worthy of his position soon enough._

The new apprentice might very well prove to be a worthy challenge. Maul suppressed the usual eagerness he felt before what was sure to be a good battle—it would be easier if he could get in and get out without being seen or sensed at all. But things rarely ever went that way and he knew it.

The first thing he did as he slunk along the massive boulders' craggy surfaces was try to feel Melody's presence again. It was dim, as she had either passed out or gone to sleep again. He could feel the sickly heat radiating from her; that could complicate things. It was odd that with all the medical droids here that she could still be experiencing symptoms like that.

 _If she could just stay conscious…_

He found himself a good hiding spot to wedge into—it would be easier to get past all this security after dark. Hopefully by then, Melody would have regained consciousness.

Sometime around sunset, Melody began to stir again. Though she still had a fever, it wasn't as high as it had been when she'd arrived. Her head still felt full of fog, however, and she had a hard time moving. A ripple at the edge of her thoughts got her attention when she was in the refresher (thankfully only splashing water on her face). Her little hands froze, dripping water everywhere.

 _Maul?!_ She asked hopefully. There was no answer, just the touch. She stayed where she was at for a second, waiting, but the presence receded quickly. She sighed and returned to her bed.

 _Maybe he isn't coming…_

She lay down, watching the darkness grow more pronounced around her. The red skies outside only seemed to turn a darker red as time went on. The medical droid was waiting in the corner, a timed sleep mode activated to give her injections every few hours. She wished it would turn back on—even though it was only here for medical purposes, at least she wouldn't feel so lonely.

Then, some kind of security alarm went off. A stampede of feet went past the door. Before she could see what was going on, the door sealed shut with a heavy WHOOSH! Her heart started to pound. What was that? Had _that_ been him?

A mental image appeared in her head of the air duct on the far side of the room, then of the plastic case of syringes that were laying on the table. Breaking into a grin, Melody snatched up the case, then crawled into the air duct. Pulling the grate back over as she remembered from the dream, she asked him _where now?_

The path he showed her was a very long and complicated one, but it lead to the hangar; from there, he could get her out, but only if she made it in time. Holding the handle of the case with her mouth, she began to crawl as fast as she could. It wasn't easy—sometimes there were rivets that stuck up farther than the others and scraped her knees. She was still very weak from the fever and still feeling very tired, but she stubbornly made her body continue.

 _Heal._

But it wouldn't heal—she'd simply been through too much. It was no use—she would have to keep going with the way she was. Overhead, she could hear sounds of confused shouting and blaster fire.

 _Uh-oh…they must have found him…_

She crawled faster, especially when a bright flash of light pierced through the duct only a foot or so away from where she was. The path widened as she went, thankfully, which made the going a little bit easier. She eventually came to a very steep drop, however, and almost fell down a very big vertical shaft.

 _Oh no…how do I get over this?_

Her jaw was beginning to ache from clenching the plastic handle with her teeth. She had to throw the medicine case across first before she could even attempt to jump it. Even then, she just _barely_ made it, her fingers scrambling frantically to find purchase on the smooth featureless metal. She wasn't sure how she did it, but she emerged on her stomach, breathing heavily and sweating.

 _That was close…_

Then, something neither of them had anticipated happened. A rush of warm air whooshed over Melody's face. She was surprised to find that the metal was growing warmer.

 _Hurry!_ Maul's voice snapped impatiently inside her head. Weird….he almost sounded _scared_ for a second…

As she crawled, she started to understand why. The metal was only a little warm, but it started to get hotter with each passing second. The heat grew sickening, the metal unbearable to touch. Her hands and knees began to sting. She hurled herself at the nearest grate only to find it locked.

 _Maul!_

Angry red blisters had broken out on all the skin that was touching the metal. Through the decorative swirls of the grate, she saw a flash of red and hurled herself backward just as the hot plasma blade ate through it. Melody spilled out into the floor, reflexive tears steaming on her cheeks. The medicine case clattered across the concrete. She saw Maul rush past in a crimson blur, the lightsaber leaving fiery-hot scarlet trails and never staying still for a second. She shakily got to her feet and had just picked up the medicine case whenever she felt herself being pulled backwards by an invisible hand. She grabbed onto the handle of a crate in an effort to resist, but her burned hands couldn't grip it. She kicked fruitlessly as she sailed backwards.

Maul turned, lightsaber slicing through a soldier's neck. He saw Melody go flying past and tried to pull her back. She started to drift back toward him, but she felt so much _heavier_ with the other person pulling. There was a loud noise as the sleeve of her hospital gown began to tear at the seams. She reached toward him desperately, but the other person was too strong. There was a whoosh as a lightsaber ignited.

 _And now comes an opponent worthy of my time,_ Maul thought. The noisy sound of The lava man's respirator didn't detract from how intimidating his presence was in the least. Despite the somewhat clunky appearance of his armor, he moved much faster than Maul had ever expected. One second he was across the room, the next, he was six inches from Maul's face. Their blades crackled loudly as they deadlocked and angry sparks began to spit up at both of them. Maul was watching for an opening, but every time he thought he had one, he was blocked and forced to parry. He sprang backwards and he and his new enemy circled each other like a couple of panthers. By now, the others had stopped trying to jump Maul entirely—they had enough sense not to get in The lava man's way.

Whhmm! Whmmm! PSCHH! WHMMMM!

Melody could only stare. She had seen Maul use the lightsaber before, but it had been nothing like this. This was a _real_ fight. She couldn't help but be impressed. There was a point where The lava man came dangerously close to actually hitting him. Maul rolled to the side at the last second and slammed his own robotic leg into The lava man's in an effort to unbalance him. It worked, but only for a split second. Maul got around behind him and _almost_ stabbed him in the back, but The lava man deflected what would have been a killing blow at the last possible second. A pile of crates toppled over on both of them. Melody saw The lava man emerge first, lifting the boxes with that invisible hand of the Force. She then had an idea, but she didn't know if it would actually work. Anything would be better than sitting around doing nothing. She noticed a bunch of round things that had spilled out of one of the crates. Cupping it in one of her injured hands and trying not to scream, she hurled it at the lava man. The lightsaber deflected it, but Maul took advantage of the distraction and freed himself from the boxes. He leapt two or three times over more piles of crates and snatched Melody up from where she was hiding. _This_ got the attention of the others and they started to come after them as well.

Melody's hands were beginning to glow. A little spark disappeared into the casing of the next little blue ball that she held. Aiming over Maul's shoulder, she pegged it at their pursuers as hard as she could. It didn't actually hit anyone, but they all scattered. She was wondering why whenever a huge mushroom cloud of orange fire erupted from their midst.

 _Uh-oh…_ her eyes went big. That had been an accident….

Maul leapt into the chasm beneath one of the landing platforms. Melody hung on for dear life even though he slowed their ascent easily. The others had temporarily lost track of them, but she knew it wouldn't take long for them to catch up. Maul seemed to think so, too—he never slowed his pace unless he had to. By the time they were on the ship and in the air, there were already others on the horizon. There were a lot of _very_ close calls—one of the lasers grazed the wing and made it smoke. Even with the harness on, Melody's limbs were flailing like a ragdoll's. It was a relief whenever they finally leapt into hyperspace.

 _He knows,_ she lamented, bowing her head, _he knows everything. I didn't mean to tell him, I swear…he just…knew…he could see everything the second he met me…_

Maul didn't answer. He was too focused on trying to obscure their trail. An almost grudging respect for this new apprentice had emerged—it looked as if he really _had_ been chosen well. They would have to be very, _very_ careful from here on out. Whenever he was confident that he had lost them all—lost them for good, it seemed, he allowed the slightest bit of tension to leave his shoulders. He looked over at Melody and suppressed a sigh. _Crying AGAIN._ She was a rather pathetic sight to behold—her hair was sticking out in frizzy curls. Her hands and knees were red and blistered with burns that were healing much more slowly than they should have. Her temperature had gone right back up again—life in general hadn't cut her a break in the last few days. He retrieved the battered case from the floor and took out one of the syringes. She squeezed her eyes shut when she saw that he meant to give her a shot, but otherwise didn't struggle. It hurt, but not as bad as her hands and knees did.

 _What do we do now?_

Good question. He wondered if it was safe to go back to Dathomir. The planet's life force might be enough to obscure their presence, but he had no idea what that new apprentice might be capable of. As he bandaged Melody up, he knew one thing—he was going to have to teach her how to fight. Right now, all she could do was run and she wasn't even very good at that. And he knew that once you made an enemy, they would _always_ come back. They had been fortunate enough to escape this time, but he made it his habit never to depend solely on luck.


	8. Chapter 7

The ship drifted in space for days. A gauzy, restful darkness had descended inside. Only the turquoise lights highlighted Maul's features as he sat cross-legged in the floor. His lightsaber had sustained a small amount of damage during his duel with the "lava man" as Melody had referred to him. He took his time, feeling a glimmer of pride upon seeing the perfect crystals he had forged himself so many years ago. It had taken days of strong meditation with no food, no water, no rest, no _nothing_ and enduring the scorching heat of the furnace, but he had not given up his vigil. It was one of the few good memories he had.

He glanced up when he heard Melody stir, but she did not wake. No matter; she would be harder to track if she stayed asleep. As he had explained before, she had a very loud mind. She had only been able to stay awake for a few minutes at a time since he'd gotten her off of Mustafar. Her burns had faded from weeping blisters to a slightly inflamed pink, however, and her temperature had been steadily dropping back to normal. The heated flush on her cheeks was now gone, as was the raspiness in her breath. When he had first come in here, she had rolled toward him almost instinctively, caught in some uneasy dream. Maul skimmed through her memories to try and find out more about that new apprentice he'd just battled. He saw Melody's vivid nightmares about the man; it was too bad she didn't see his face clearly before he'd fallen into the lava. Everything else, however, was amazingly clear. She seemed to have absorbed echoes of the past from this place and created a composite with her dreams. She relived the events as though she had experienced them for herself.

When he got to the dream of his childhood self, he was momentarily surprised. He had gradually forgotten what he had sounded like as a child before his voice changed—he preferred to focus on the present which was why his memories of the past were faint and blurry. This particular memory was one he had been unable to completely separate from, however, as it was the one and only time he had tried to escape. Sidious had punished him so severely that he'd almost died. He had never once tried again. Of all the memories that Melody could have absorbed from that place, why, he wondered, had she chosen this one? Was that innocent child version of him what she had _wanted_ to see? Was it still the way she saw him now? And their opponent's mental question that she had sensed was a good one—why she did not fear Maul. He supposed it was because she hadn't seen the memories of what he had done.

He had lost track of how long he was actually sitting there, reexamining her memories. He had been looking through her experiences of the black armored apprentice when she woke for real this time. As a result, he hadn't registered what she was going to do. Not only had she thrown her arms around him so tightly that she almost knocked him backwards, she kissed him on the forehead before he could pry her off and shove her away. She giggled silently, clearly oblivious to his discomfort and disgust before sprinting down the hallway to the refresher. As the door closed behind her, Maul instinctively brushed the back of his hand over the spot where she'd kissed him.

 _Maybe I should show her what I've done. Then she'd stop doing that…_

Feeling strange, he picked up his now-repaired lightsaber and clipped it to his belt. Then, he went back to the cockpit. It was the first time anyone had ever done such a thing…most people either tried to get away from him as fast as they could or tried to kill him. Those reactions were nice and predictable, but this…it was too weird for him. Even though he knew she would be coming back in a few minutes, he felt a strange sort of dread. She was easier to like when she was asleep.

The patter of Melody's bare feet announced her return. She was still a pathetic sight to behold, but at least she smelled better. She'd attempted to clean herself up a bit and her hair wasn't so wild. That ridiculous hospital gown would have to go, of course, as it would attract too much attention. She beamed up at him with that affectionate smile as if he were her reason for living. Somehow this made him more uncomfortable.

 _Where are we going now?_

They were low on fuel. They were low on a lot of things, he noticed. Now came the fun part: which place in the Outer Rim were they going to get supplies without being recognized? Fortunately, he'd had to go to many disreputable places to do many disreputable tasks so he knew his way around. He was glad, at least, he didn't have to tell Melody to get in her chair. She had already fastened her harness, legs swinging in anticipation.

An hour or so later, they had landed the ship on one of many planets that Melody didn't yet know the name of. She was sure he had told her as they were landing, but her tummy quivered with anticipation. Her green gaze had widened as she followed him through the crowds of people. There were a lot of people wearing hoods pulled up so that their faces didn't show so much—Maul had done the same. She had to hold on to the hem of his cloak so that she wouldn't mix him up with someone else.

"Do not wander off," he warned her. She nodded gravely—the last few days had been a very harsh lesson for her. She almost had to run to keep up with him, but her little hand never let go of the fold of black fabric. This was harder than it sounded, as people kept bumping into both of them. It was noisy and bright here, but she didn't really mind. There were a lot of new things to see: one stand was selling glittering jewelry that one excited lady was trying on. She couldn't decide which one of the necklaces that she wanted. She held up one made of ruby stones, the other of clear diamond-like ones. Melody pointed to the red one and she smiled and made a gesture of thanks. Another place was selling all kinds of food that was freshly cooked. Melody sniffed deeply, her mouth watering at the smell of frying meat. She waved to the six-armed man who was flipping the filets up in the air and he waved back just before catching one of them on a plate. There was a smiling woman running a fruit stand next to that—she would occasionally cut open one of the fruits to show how ripe and juicy it was. Sticky golden juice welled out of the peach-like thing she was holding and Melody nearly stopped in her tracks, eager for it. Up ahead, there was an old man who sold toys. All different kinds of children were allowed to play with them. They had toy TIE fighters, lightsabers, plush animals of all different kinds, and even mini-sized instruments that would really play. The kindly old man was a Twi'lek with sky-blue skin. He sat with his feet propped up on a crate and was carving something out of wood. Melody ached to get a closer look, but she gave only a quiet sigh.

They were at the place where Maul was getting the fuel when something almost happened. Melody was gazing longingly at some huge rainbow-swirled lollipops in a jar on a counter when a man stepped around the corner. He was old enough to be Melody's father. When his shadow was cast over her, she looked up at him with those huge green eyes. A warm smile crossed his features.

"What a pretty little girl! What's your name?"

She shied away from him, not so keen on strangers after the last few days. The candy salesman noticed him, too, and his eyes never left the guy even as he swept. The man, however, either didn't notice her discomfort or didn't care. He stooped so that he was eye-level with Melody.

"You're so shy, aren't you? Where are you from?"

He offered his hand, but Melody didn't take it. She backed up another step and collided with Maul's backside. Maul was wrapping up the transaction for the fuel when he simultaneously sensed Melody's growing anxiety and smelled the guy behind him. A cloud of testosterone floated in the air; to most, it was intangible smell, but to him it was a hot, salty, sleazy odor. He turned his head, giving the intruder an ominous expression.

"Back off," he said menacingly.

The guy looked at him with annoyance, all the warmth dropping out of his expression. Melody took this opportunity to go to Maul's other side where he was between her and the stranger. People were starting to notice the crackle of tension in the air. Maul saw the stranger's hand slide to his belt where he obviously carried either a blaster or a dagger—his own cloak hid what it was for the moment.

"If you don't get out of here this instant," the candy salesman threatened, "I'm going to call the authorities."

"For doing _what?_ I'm just being friendly," the stranger scowled. Melody peered out around Maul's sleeve. She saw the stranger's hand twitch and instinctively squeezed Maul's wrist in warning. Maul didn't _need_ the warning, however—he had already anticipated the guy's ill intentions. He struck him just as the blaster glinted in the dim mid-afternoon sunlight and the weapon fell to the sand. He toppled over, blood coming from either his nose or his mouth, possibly both. Melody hadn't even seen Maul _move._ Heart thundering, she watched as the guy's eyes widened. Deciding it would be a mistake to stick around, he clumsily scrambled to his feet and staggered away. A few people clapped but most of them hastily went back to their shopping and acted as if they had seen nothing.

"I always knew there was something wrong with him," the candy salesman was saying, "but I never thought he'd actually stoop that low."

He shook his head sympathetically at Melody. He couldn't believe he'd almost witnessed a kidnapping. He took one of the lollipops that he'd seen Melody inspecting earlier and tossed one to her. She caught it with a shy smile.

"There you go, Kid. I'm glad you're all right."

It was nearly night by the time they got back to the ship. The sun was beginning to set, casting them in a rosy light. Melody had somehow acquired more gifts than for seemingly no other reason than that she was either cute (honestly, he couldn't see it for himself) or that she had nearly been kidnapped. She still held one corner of his cloak with one hand, the other had a cloth bag full of sweets and toys. Her mouth was decorated in sticky rainbow streaks and she was skipping clumsily through the sand.

 _Can you teach me how to make bad people run away like that? That was so COOL!_

"That's the first thing you're going to learn," he answered, "as you seem to attract trouble everywhere you go."

 _YAY!_ Then, pensively: _I don't do it on purpose…_

He felt her pang of guilt—she was beginning to see that there were times that she could be a burden to him. He chose not to point this out, however, as there were other things on his mind. Being awake for days on end was starting to catch up to him. Once he had been sure that they would not be followed and that there were no ships around Dathomir, he decided they could risk going back—however, things would be prepared just in case they had to leave again. Once they arrived, he would start to train Melody and hopefully she'd stop getting into so many messes. He could also _finally_ go through the information he had from Derelith—if he knew enough about Melody's people, she could start working on making her Flame stronger. Her days as a helpless little girl would be over forever. Once on autopilot, Maul leaned back slightly in his chair. It didn't show on his face or even in his body language, but she knew he was exhausted. She could feel it.

 _It's your turn to go to bed,_ she commented.

"Not yet."

 _You were watching over me all the times I was sleeping,_ she told him, _at least let me do that for you. I know what you're thinking but we're in hyperspace. Nothing can get us here, right?_

It was, in theory, possible, but the odds were a lot lower. A few minutes' rest would probably make a miraculous difference. He showed her the various screens on the console. If anything other than stars should show up on any one of them, he instructed her, she should wake him up immediately. He remained where he was in his chair though he let his head tilt back. Though wary, he dropped off much more quickly than he expected to. She felt his presence dimming and took out her drawing book that some nice lady had given her in the market. Pressing the end of one of the colored pencils against her lip thoughtfully, she wondered what she should draw first. She supposed she could make a book of their adventures together. Laying out the pencils carefully, she began to scribble thoughtfully on the page, making sure to check the screens every few strokes that she made. None of them lit. She was glad to be doing something for him for once even if it was a pretty small thing.

 _Now how do I make all his stripes?_

Two things occurred to Maul whenever he stirred awake again—one was that they were coming out of hyperspace and the other was that he'd slept for longer than he meant to. Fortunately, nothing had happened in that time. Melody hastily gathered up all her pencils and put them away. She was hugging the book to her chest as if she didn't want him to see what she'd been scribbling. That was fine—the book had served its purpose in occupying her. He had no interest in it beyond that.

The ship touched down, but he remained wary.

"Stay here," he told Melody. She nodded and went back to drawing while he checked the caves and the surrounding area. He sensed nothing for the time being, but that was always subject to change. He sent her down to the Nightsister Lair first and told her to stay put while he got their supplies.

Whenever she went upstairs to her bedroom, the green mist started to pour in through the cracks in the shutters. Melody watched it, slowly breaking into a smile. She was no longer afraid.

 _Welcome back, Little One,_ one of the voices whispered, _we wondered where you'd gone._

 _Some very bad people took me,_ she told them, _but it's okay now. Maul found me._

She could see a ring of women faintly in the swirling mist. It surprised her; she had never seen them this clearly before.

 _The sooner you begin your training, the sooner you can bring us back,_ a different one answered, _and you'll never be alone again._

She nodded. It was beginning to sound better and better.

 _How am I going to do it, though? I can't even grow Maul's legs back yet._

 _The day will come. And we will guide you._

The mist began to glow more brightly and something solid seemed to be forming inside it. Puzzled, Melody wandered over to it, wondering what it was. Something slid to the floor as the mist began to fan out again.

 _Here. Embrace your new life, future Nightsister._

She held up a dress that was made of the same dark brown and red cloth that Mother Talzin's had been in one of the paintings that still hung downstairs. There were also fingerless gloves, calf-length boots, and a red hooded cape. Peeking downstairs to make sure that Maul hadn't yet come back, she closed the door carefully behind her and stripped off the ragged hospital gown. She wouldn't miss it. She tugged on the dress, awed at how light the material was—it felt like a second skin. Heck, it almost felt like she was naked, but in a good way. It didn't trip her if she tried to run and would stretch if she wanted to climb. She liked the way it felt, but she didn't look in the mirror yet. First, she tugged on the gloves and the boots. Then she tied on her cape.

 _Swish, swish, swish!_ She would never get tired of snapping and swishing it, making it furl this way and that. She pulled the hood up over her dark hair and marveled at how pretty it looked. She really _did_ feel like one of them now.

Something odd happened; it wasn't just that the clothes felt like silk or that they were warmer than her old robes had been. The traces of magic left behind on the clothes made her feel stronger. They made her hearing better. She could even see better in the dim light. She could feel things more—the slight blur of nothingness, for instance, as Maul came closer. The green mist of Mother Talzin and the other Nightsisters greeted him before vanishing off into the darkness once more. He glanced up when he saw movement at the top of the stairs.

Melody waved at him, positively shaking with excitement. She spun around two or three times for his appraisal before bounding down the stairs. He knew that she wanted him to say something, to maybe compliment her. He was not very experienced, however, in giving them. So what he said was:

"At least now you look like one of us."

 _One of us…_

This seemingly small phrase worked wonders. She beamed up at him for a second, then started to put things away—at least the things that she could reach. Then, he felt that odd ripple that indicated something being manipulated by the force. Curious, he turned around.

Melody was trying to Force lift a cup out of a box. The open cabinet was just _right there_ , two or three steps away. He watched as the little plastic cup that weighed almost nothing began to shudder and buck. The thing may as well have weighed hundreds of pounds to her, though—her cheeks were almost as red as his. Staring intently at the thing, she managed to move the cup about an inch or so above the Styrofoam it was packed in. Unfortunately, it fell almost as quickly as she got it in the air. Melody was panting as if she'd just run a marathon.

Heaven help him, he actually wanted to see her succeed. If she knew she had an audience, she might stop trying, so he watched from his peripheral vision instead, continuing to pull things out of the bigger boxes. The cup rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell. Finally, at some point, it pitched forward only to clatter hard against the stone floor. Melody sighed in frustration and retrieved it. At this point, she had gotten tired of trying. She gasped in surprise when the same cup zoomed out of her hand and landed neatly in his outstretched palm.

 _When will I be able to do that?_ She wondered.


	9. Chapter 8

Around six months had gone by since the second return to Dathomir. There had been no more incidents so far with the pirates, the Imperials, or the "lava-man" apprentice (as Melody kept calling him). Maul had started training Melody the morning after they'd landed again. Each day, he would push her a little bit harder in order to build up both some physical and mental resilience. When she complained, he simply ignored it. Maul, as it turned out, was a tough taskmaster, but he was careful not to use Sidious's more abusive methods—after all, if she lost her connection to the Light Side, everything would be for naught. It took a lot of restraint on his part.

Melody was still small for her age, the plague and malnutrition she'd suffered earlier on causing her growth to slow, but she _did_ grow. Hard, wiry little muscles began to form on her arms and legs. At first, she seemed to always be tired, sore, and hungry, but she eventually got used to those feelings and they faded away altogether. She got to where she could think around her burning lungs when she ran and could focus for longer stretches of time on what she was doing. Within those six months, she had learned what most people don't fully the get the hang of until they become teens: how to take care of herself. The first thing that Maul had taught her was basic survival: how and where to find food and water, what things would probably kill her, and how to either disable them or escape (sometimes both). She happened across one of the energy bows that one of the Nightsisters had left behind, though it was broken.

 _But it's broken,_ she protested.

"And we're going to fix it."

 _How?_

Once they were done training for the day, Maul brought the bow inside and quickly dismantled it. Melody joined him at the table. She was barely able to see over it so he placed her there beside the bow. Then, much to her astonishment, he began to walk her through the process of repairing it.

 _I have to do it?_ She asked, puzzled.

"Yes. It's going to be _your_ weapon. This is the fastest way to get acquainted with it."

 _Did you make your lightsaber?_

"I did, right down to the crystals inside."

 _How?_

"Very, very carefully. The Jedi prefer to pluck their crystals straight from the caves, but the Sith would usually create their own inside a very powerful forge. There were four crystals, two in each end. It required days of meditation and intense, unwavering focus. A single second of lapsed concentration could have caused some rather dangerous flaws—it meant no distractions whatsoever. No food, no sleep, no water, _nothing._ But the result was well-worth it. The finished product burned hotter and brighter than any other plasma blade I had ever held."

Though his expression didn't change very much, the pride that subtly colored Maul's voice was evident. Melody smiled, wanting to see the memory. And, to her surprise, he showed her. She felt the blast of searing hot air that surrounded him, even felt the perspiration drenching him as he struggled not to let his mind go anywhere but the crystal matrix hidden in the flames. She watched as he carefully removed them, testing their weight in his palms once they had cooled. She watched as the parts of the lightsaber floated before him and seemed to knit themselves together supported by the invisible hands of the Force. And she saw his triumphant smile as he ignited it the first time. As the memory faded, she was grinning from ear to ear.

 _When do I get to make one?_

"Not for a while yet," he replied, "you've got much more work to do before you're ready."

Melody supposed that was true—she could lift an empty cup off of the table about an inch, but it always clattered to the floor even when she was concentrating hard enough to give herself a headache. All those little parts that went inside a lightsaber would probably crash into each other and break if she tried to do it now. They returned to the task at hand, realigning where the plasma string was supposed to go and hammering the dents out where some big droid had stepped on it. Melody liked the way he taught her things—though there were plenty of times it would have been easier for him just to take over, he wouldn't. The adults she had known most of her short life had constantly been snatching things out of her hands and doing it for her. When, at last, the bow was repaired and polished to a glossy sheen, she felt a swell of pride in her small, narrow chest. Though it was past dark by the time they finished, Maul took her to the mouth of the cave to test it out. Kneeling beside her, he corrected her grip on it. She aimed for a nearby tree and pulled back on the string. The energetic arrow hit a rock behind it and promptly fizzled out.

 _This is harder than it looks,_ she admitted.

It took her a while to even get close to the tree, but after several tries, one of the energy arrows _finally_ lodged firmly in the bark. Melody breathed a sigh of relief—she had begun to worry that she would never get the hang of it.

 _How good were the Sisters?_ Melody wondered when they returned to their house.

"They held off Grievous and his droids for quite some time," Maul answered, "though they were severely outnumbered. Many of them would practice blindfolded and be able to hit enemies further away without seeing them first—and that was excluding the use of their magic."

Impressed, Melody's eyes went round.

 _Do you think I'll ever get as good as them?_

"That depends entirely on how hard you work. Now go upstairs—it is time for bed."

 _Good night, Master._

He watched her disappear up the stairs and around the corner.

 _You're doing well with her,_ Talzin's voice said faintly in his ears, _she has changed much already._

"She has become more resilient," he agreed, "but still not progressing as quickly as I'd hoped."

 _What we will be asking her to do is beyond even my level of skill,_ she reminded him, _nothing so advanced will be accomplished easily. However, I have heard whispers of something that may be helpful._

An image appeared in his mind's eye. He saw a purple holocron—a Derelithian holocron from the looks of it. It was in the hands of some lowlife on Coruscant who was saving it for a rainy day—and for the highest price he could get.

 _This was taken from one of the Temples,_ she explained, _so I suspect it will have advanced healing techniques inside. You will need to move quickly to secure it._

"How much time do we have?"

 _A few days at most, I suspect._

As Maul prepared for bed, he thought it over, weighing his options. First, he could leave Melody here and go get the holocron. It would likely be a faster chore that way and there was less chance of her getting lost or stolen. Unfortunately, if he left her here, she would be vulnerable should anyone drop in for an unannounced visit. If he took her to Coruscant, he could keep an eye on her, but she would probably slow him down and there was an equally big chance that she would attract attention and trouble. She _always_ did. In the end, it wasn't really much of a choice. It might be safer to leave her on the ship, he supposed, _if_ there were a safe way to hide it.

When the day came to find that holocron, she ended up going with him. Though she carried herself differently, her fascination with her surroundings remained the same. On the upper levels, the cityscape seemed endless and lots of various vehicles zoomed past. The air was clean and the sunset was all manner of colors that she yearned to draw. He placed one hand on her shoulder and steered her firmly through the crowd. They descended to the lower levels where it seemed to be perpetually night. Various neon signs flickered and flashed, competing for everyone's attention. The smell of unwashed bodies, alcohol, and mildew were strong down here. Various junkies and beggars approached them in hordes, but Maul's presence was intimidating enough that they quickly changed their minds and faltered upon getting a closer look. Melody felt a ripple extruding out from him, a cold, dark menacing sort of presence. She even felt the urge to put some distance between him and herself.

 _How are you doing that?_ She asked.

"You'll learn eventually. Keep moving."

There was, unfortunately, a situation up ahead that even she couldn't ignore. Something was calling out to her, a desperate, silent plea that caused the Flame inside her to burn brighter.

 _Someone up ahead is hurting, Master…_

He sensed it, too. There was a dark ripple of energy coming from somewhere up ahead. He didn't think much of it, as down here was a dangerous place to be. The murder rate was probably astronomical.

When they got to where that ripple was coming from, however, Melody could not ignore the sensation any longer. The Flame longed to answer and it seemed to take over. She broke away from Maul and sprinted toward the edge of the crowd. People protested and swore at her, but she ignored them. She burst into the pseudo-circle-shaped clearing around what appeared to be some sort of wreck. There was a speeder bike half-lodged into a wall. It was flaming now, having exploded upon impact. The rider, a very unfortunate woman, was laying in a pool of blood on the sidewalk. She had clearly been going too fast and had collided with some tank of a vehicle. The driver was shaken, but only had a small cut on his forehead. He was kneeling beside her, looking at a complete loss as to what to do.

Melody was at his elbow within seconds. Maul had almost gotten close enough to grab her elbow and pull her back, but she slipped out of his grasp. Her little outstretched hands were already glowing, the invisible white fire in her palms eager to escape.

 _Heal!_

She was astonished when she sensed not _one_ but _two_ life-forces in the same body. The Flame sank into the woman's crimson-stained skin and spread through her, warming her flesh that had been chilled by the shadows. The man who was kneeling beside her stared at Melody with wide eyes as the woman coughed violently, a stream of blood and saliva pouring out of her mouth. The half-formed child in her womb began to stir feebly.

 _So much for not attracting unwanted attention,_ Maul thought.

The woman now shimmered softly as the air around her seemed to ripple for a moment. Her wide pale blue eyes locked on to the little girl in the red hood. They were glazed and unfocused, but they cleared at once. Her breathing was a lot more steady now, but it still sounded strained. Melody's face had turned a flat, unhealthy gray, but she remained steady on her feet. Someone had called an ambulance and its sirens blared, warning the others to back up and give it some space. Melody turned and disappeared into the crowd, not protesting when Maul pulled her into an alley. She looked down at her hands, realizing they still had blood on them, and wiped them on the inside of her skirt.

"Melody, do you remember on the ship that I asked you _not_ do draw attention to yourself?"

She looked up at him slowly.

 _Yes…_

"That means you can't be seen doing things like that."

 _But she was dying…I could hear them screaming…both her and the baby…_

Maul sighed.

"I'm sure you did, but you have to realize that you can't save everyone, nor is it your job."

 _Then…what is my job?_

"Your job right now is to _stay with me._ Understood?"

She knew that tone very well—it was the tone that said there would not be any arguments. She nodded.

"No matter what you see, or hear, or _sense,_ you are not to leave my side again."

She bowed her head.

 _Okay…_

The tricky part was figuring out who had the holocron. Mother Talzin had not actually seen who had it, as the holocron had changed hands many times since its retrieval. When they eventually narrowed down the location, it was getting late. Their search took them to a seedy-looking bar where most of the people had seen better days. There were fights going on, drunken couples copping feels at each other, what looked like a lot of drug deals, and bets being placed on card games. Melody shuddered and clung to Maul's arm—she didn't like the feel of this place. There were too many things jumping out at her. Maul almost moved to pry her off of him, but thought better of it. They would only be here for a short time and if death-gripping his arm like that kept her from getting distracted and trying to save everybody, so be it. Keeping Melody blocked from view with his body, he began to question the bartender about who came and went on a regular basis. The name _Dolos_ came up a few times. Melody frowned; though the bartender's accent was heavy and she could barely understand his Basic, she recognized that name from somewhere.

"You're welcome to a drink while you wait," the bartender suggested. Melody could feel that he was afraid of Maul and wanted him to leave as soon as possible. She understood why—that menacing presence was back. Even though most of Maul's face was concealed in the shadows cast by his cowl, she noticed that what little of his face that was showing seemed harder, more angular. More _predatory._ His golden irises ringed by the twisting red flame patterns seemed to be _glowing._ She almost let go of his arm, cringing.

 _I really hate it when he does that…_ she thought, nervous.

He steered her to a corner booth and they waited. Some of that scariness he projected had vanished, but not all of it. She wondered if he was somehow doing that so that people would leave them alone. The people in here were also noisy and scary—she supposed she couldn't blame him. Suddenly, her hand closed tightly on his under the table. He glanced sideways at her questioningly.

 _I know him, Master. He's that Sleemo that hit me in the face!_

Maul couldn't help but be slightly amused. He had never heard Melody _swear_ before—not even at him on a bad day.

"Are you sure that's him?"

She nodded. You didn't forget things like that easily—goodness knows he hadn't. They watched the pirate flirt with a couple of Twi'Lek women before downing a couple of very strong drinks.

"Here's what we're going to do," he whispered almost inaudibly to Melody, "we're going to wait until he leaves. We're going to follow him and find out where the holocron is. Then you can pay him back for all the things he put you through. But you have to do as I say without hesitation, do you understand?"

She nodded, her gaze never leaving Dolos. Maul watched her carefully. He could feel the hostility returning as she stared down her prey. And he had never felt so closely bonded to her as he did in that moment. _Finally,_ he thought, _something I can relate to. I used to get such anticipation before the hunt._

Melody would later admit that she had been a little bit scared—who wouldn't? She'd been a single helpless kid on a ship full of pirates. But she was less scared now because Maul was right beside her. She knew he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. So she imagined what she was going to do to Dolos once they caught up with him. Probably give him a good kick in the groin at least….

It was very late by the time Dolos had his fill of alcohol and lady company. By then, the girls had lost interest, as he was too drunk to be of much company. He paid for his drinks and began to sway his way home. In the dark, Melody and Maul became as living shadows, stalking him with a charged patience. Their journey led them to a tiny one-room apartment. Maul sliced through the lock easily and they went inside.

Dolos turned, feeling uneasy. He had been feeling uneasy since he'd left the bar, but he couldn't put his finger on _why._ Now, as two figures surged toward him from the darkness, he understood why the hair on the back of his neck had stood up. He whipped the stolen lightsaber off of his belt and ignited it, but he was only prolonging the inevitable. Maul's blocked his and sent up a shower of sparks. Dolos's eyes narrowed, trying to figure out who this guy was. He wished he had thought to bring his blaster, but it was laying uselessly on the table across the room. He swung the lightsaber again, but it was easily knocked out of his hand.

 _Pathetic…_ Maul thought. It had been ages since he'd been in a real fight—anything that followed his duel with Sidious's new apprentice would probably always disappoint him, however. He picked Dolos up by the ragged collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall, stunning him.

"If…if you're going to ragdoll me, can I at least know why?" he slurred, though the adrenaline he had was starting to counter the effects of the alcohol.

"The Derelithian holocron—where is it?" Maul demanded.

"I don't know what you're—" his words abruptly cut off when Maul's lightsaber came dangerously close to his neck.

"Yes, you do," Maul pressed, "and if you want to remain in one piece, I suggest you tell us where it is."

Dolos sighed, expelling a cloud of alcohol vapors in Maul's face.

"That's all you want? Take it…S'in the safe…Can… _hicc_ …can't get it open anyways…"

Melody peered closely at him. Maul watched her with his peripheral vision; she stepped forward and took the lightsaber on the floor. Then, she took the blaster from the table. Maul dropped Dolos, but never dropped his guard.

"Get it out."

Dolos thought for a split second of running, but it would do no good—he was now unarmed. He shakily bent to press his hand against the scanner. It beeped and he heard the latch click. He took out a purple prism-shaped thing and held it out to them. It was only when Melody rushed forward that he recognized her. A cruel smile lit up his features as she seized hold of her prize. Dropping the holocron, he seized her and pinned her against his body.

"I thought I recognized you, you little brat!"

Something very unexpected followed this little insult. Maul felt a flare of indignation from Melody. Her palms began to glow as she tried to pry herself free of Dolos's sweaty grasp. He howled in pain when white fire erupted from her palms. The sleeve of his shirt was slightly pulled up, so the blisters that erupted along his arm were visible to Maul. The morbid smell of singed flesh filled the air. He was forced to let go of her and dropped to the floor, breathing raggedly in disbelief. But it didn't stop there. Melody's hands were still glowing—she seized both sides of his face, pressing the palms in. He screamed as his face began to redden and blister as well. Waves of fury and triumph were surging out of the little girl now. She let go of him, little tendrils of smoke coming up from his burned flesh.

 _That's for being so mean to me,_ she said calmly, allowing the light in her hands to extinguish. She picked up the holocron from where she had dropped it along with the lightsaber and the blaster and returned to Maul's side. She couldn't see his face even in the glow of the lightsaber, but she could _swear_ that she felt him smiling just for a second.

"Ah….okay, I admit…" Dolos panted, "I _might_ have…deserved that…but…can you please…just…go now? You got…what you…want…"

"Was that the only holocron?" Maul demanded.

"It…was the…only one…we took….yeah…."

Maul held his hand outstretched over Dolos's burned face, searching his memories. He was telling the truth, it seemed. The faces of the other pirates blurred past. Maul observed them carefully—it might help to know who they were in the future. Dolos was no longer working with them, as they'd had some sort of disagreement over the last job they'd taken, so it was unlikely that he would be missed. With a flick of his wrist, Dolos ceased to exist. His body slumped to the floor and was still, leaving an acrid burnt smell behind. Melody winced, but she didn't look away.

"Let's go," Maul said quietly.

As they walked, he could feel some discomfort growing in her. She was obviously feeling conflicted about something.

 _Maul…Master, I mean…is it bad that…_

"Out with it."

 _Is it bad that I'm glad he's gone for good?_

He waited until they had ascended to a safer level before replying to her:

"I wonder…did you ever see his memories?"

She thought for a moment.

 _Not as clearly as I saw the lava man's…I was still really sick when I was on the pirate ship._

"What did you see? What did you sense about him?"

 _That he did some really bad things. He killed people._

"And he had no qualms about deceiving you, hurting you, or even just recently killing you, did he?"

She shook her head.

 _No. He was hoping you'd stab me by accident. I knew you wouldn't—I've seen you fight. But he didn't know that._

"Exactly. He would have killed you if he had the chance. And after you were gone, he would have continued to kill. You and I prevented him from hurting anyone else."

A spark of understanding illuminated her troubled eyes.

 _So…sometimes it's okay…if you're protecting somebody or if they're going to hurt you…_

"It's called self-defense."

She still seemed troubled, but marginally less so. When they arrived back on the ship, it was his turn to ask a question:

"How did you manage to burn him that way?"

 _I don't know exactly,_ she admitted, _the Flame didn't like what he was doing…maybe it sensed all the people he hurt and killed and stole from…I didn't even know I could do that._

"When you learn how to control it, perhaps you could teach me."

She couldn't help but smile at the indirect compliment. It was a little strange, as it sounded backward to her still childlike mind, but her insides squirmed pleasantly. The idea of Maul possessing the Flame was the coolest idea ever.

 _It has to do with the light,_ she explained, _everybody everywhere has light inside them—even if they don't see it or they think it's gone. My mom once said that souls were made of fire, that that's why we're warm when we're alive. Fire can do two things—it can burn away all the bad, old, rotting, ruined stuff or it can change something good into something better and keep away the cold and the dark. When you have the Flame, you imagine it going into the other person and making their light bigger._

Something clicked then.

 _Ohh….burning away the bad stuff….I get it now…that's how I did it…_

She cupped her hands, concentrating on them hard. A flare of light sparked up. The little candle flame she had produced on her first day on Dathomir was there, but it was brighter and stronger, not frail and flickering like the first time.

Then…

 _Maul! You're bleeding!_

His gaze followed hers to where a place on his sleeve was glistening with wetness. Puzzled, he wondered how on earth that had happened—he hadn't even _felt_ it. He couldn't even remember anyone getting close enough to inflict any damage. He was going to tell her to stop overreacting, that it was just a shallow cut, nothing to get worked up over. But he instinctively held his tongue—something big was about to happen. The little flame she held in the palm of her hand grew exponentially—it was now big enough to fill a thermos. It was almost too bright to look at. She tugged his sleeve up and lay her other hand over the cut.

 _Heal._

The flame flared brightly for a moment, then seemed to suck back into her palm. It was no longer visible, but he could see it racing through her body in his mind's eye to surge into her palm that was laying against his skin. A rush of warmth, a faint glow, and the small wound knitted itself back together and was scabbed over within seconds. He felt her presence grow a little stronger in his mind—mainly what he felt from her was a fierce sense of protectiveness. He began to wonder if she hadn't been a little bit more afraid for him earlier than she had for herself. He watched her return to her chair. She was toying with the lightsaber handle.

 _He stole this, too,_ she commented, _it's a different one than he had last time. That one was green—this one is purple._

She turned it over and over in her hands. A presence lingered in there faintly, one that had dwelt in both the light and the shadows as she had.

"Let me see that," Maul demanded, stretching his hand out. She lay the lightsaber in his open palm. Though the person who had once held this blade was long gone, his presence still faintly lingered here.

 _My former master crossed blades with you once…and my own mother…how fitting…._

It was a remarkable coincidence. This blade had once belonged to Mace Windu.


	10. Chapter 9

It was the worst storm she had ever been in the middle of in her entire life. Lightning split the skies overhead, causing her to almost jump out of her skin. Freezing cold rain came down in sheets and all but blinded her. She had fallen numerous times because the mud was very slippery and cuts and bruises stung her legs and hands. She pushed herself harder, determined to get this over with. Maul was just up ahead of her, a dark blur amidst the silvery-red smears of color that filmed her vision. She had been reluctant to run in the storm, but he refused to give in to her fear.

 _It's only noise,_ he had pressed, _only distractions that you must learn to block out._

At least, she thought, he had run with her.

A few minutes later, they arrived back at the mouth of the Nightsister cave. Maul, of course, was not breathing hard at all, though he was every bit as soaked to the skin as she was. Melody dropped to her knees, her chest burning. Her heart felt like it was going to explode, but at least she was away from that accursed lightning. She shivered violently, wondering how she could feel this cold when she'd sprinted nonstop the entire time.

"Go and dry off," Maul told her, "then we can move on to other things."

They met again downstairs; Maul had also changed into dry clothes. She followed him deeper into the cave. The ever-present green mist swirled around them; Mother Talzin was likely around here somewhere. She often wondered where she and the other Nightsister spirits went when they weren't hanging around her and Maul. There were a couple of times that they passed through near-total darkness, but Melody was no longer fearful of it. She breathed slowly and deeply, the sound sometimes changing according to their surroundings. There were times she could almost "see" with her mind. They passed numerous doorways into natural chambers that had created "rooms". Some were inaccessible because they'd either collapsed or rubble was blocking the door. Others could only be accessed in a certain order because one room led to another. She had meant to do some more exploring down here, but Maul had kept her so busy with training during the day that she never had time to come and look at everything.

They came to a small room somewhere in the middle. At first, Melody didn't even realize it was there, as there was a huge stone blocking it. Maul Force-lifted the rock out of the way, revealing the door.

"Do not touch anything," he warned her before going in first.

There was a sulfuric waft and a spurt; a little flame ignited one of the candles that had long since gone out. It splashed the room in a weak burnt-orange light and Melody was finally able to see her surroundings better. Various random items were placed on rocks and stacks of crates like pieces in a museum collection. She wandered around examining them. There was a beat-up looking helmet that was decorated in red and black chipped paint. There was a portrait of a beautiful blonde woman though the face was scratched out with a scribble of charcoal. Beneath it were two lightsabers: one was an ordinary one that closely resembled Maul's except that it only had one end instead of two and the other was completely pitch black. As she gazed at them, the dim light seemed to dim even more. She backed away, but something strange seemed to be happening to her. Both hands stretched out seemingly of their own accord to the lightsaber blades. As her palm made contact with the first one (the regular one), she heard a voice in the back of her mind:

 _Forgive me, Brother…I was not worthy of being your apprentice…_

She saw the memory from the perspective of the person who had last held the lightsaber, so she couldn't see his face. She could, however, see Maul's—and he looked visibly upset. The memory went dark and she let go of the hilt, feeling an overpowering sadness.

 _He had a brother…he mentioned him once, but he never talks about him…I wonder if it's because he misses him…_

The other blade, the black one, had a very different presence to it. When Melody's other hand made contact with it, the smells of blood and explosives filled her nostrils. Thousands of dying screams echoed in her mind. The hilt went warm beneath her palm and seemed to pulse with a life of its own. The blade, black and rippling like a serpent, leapt from the hilt as if it had been waiting for someone to pick it up again. It shimmered, giving off a faint aura of glow despite its blackness. Utterly transfixed by it, she felt a strange dark euphoria blanket her mind.

Then, without even knowing what happened, she found herself laying on her back on the damp, cold stone. The back of her head throbbed; she must have hit it on the way down. The blade had gone out and the hilt was laying a few feet away. The crimson blade of Maul's lightsaber was inches away from her chest—she realize he had struck her, disarming her instantly.

"I told you not to touch anything," he snapped. Melody's head bowed contritely. She realized that there was a dark scorch mark along the wall—she had swung the black blade without realizing it and had almost hit him. He switched his lightsaber off and she scrambled to her feet, her knees shaking. She moved away from him and from the fallen lightsaber as fast as she could. How was it that he seemed to tower over her so much when he was that angry?

Maul replaced the darksaber in its holder under the woman's portrait. When he turned back around, Melody sensed that the worst was past. Trying to inconspicuously rub the spot where she'd hit her head, she asked:

 _Are they alive? Not in the same way we are, but…alive somehow…_

A moment of silence passed between them before Maul replied:

"That is a matter of perspective. The crystals that power them are Force-attuned, but the hands that hold them ultimately control them."

She nodded, realizing that he was holding the lightsaber hilt that they had taken from the pirate Dolos. She had often wondered where it was—he had hidden the blade in here along with the Derelithian holocron. He tossed the hilt to her now and she just barely caught it with her surprised hands.

"Since you seem so intent on having a lightsaber," he explained, "it is time for you to learn how to use one properly."

She stared, open-mouthed.

 _It's mine? Really?_

"I have no use for it."

She mentally squealed, making him flinch. Kneeling beside her, he corrected her grip on the hilt.

"You will need to be more careful than you were just a moment ago," he warned her, "this is not a toy like that segment of pipe you found laying outside. One wrong move and you'll lose a limb before you know what's happened. The blade is pure plasma and burns at several thousand degrees. That's why most of the switches are on the inside."

She felt around mentally, seeing the guts of the hilt in her imagination. Once she knew where to apply the pressure, the blade jumped to life at once. A brilliant jet of lavender raced out of the end. The light was almost blinding after being here in the dim orange candlelight. The hilt warmed instantly against her palm and something very _strange_ happened. Memories raced up in her mind's eye, but they didn't feel intrusive and forceful this time. She could see a number of different people in a circular room. Many of them were friends. She saw that almost everyone was of a different race—one was a small green man with large pointed ears and an encouraging smile. One was an orange-skinned woman with white tattoos on her face and striped…not exactly pigtails, but similar…and one was a blue-skinned man. There were others, but they went by too fast to get a good look at. The memory appeared to belong to a dark-skinned man with eyes so dark brown that they appeared black at first. He had a deep, quiet voice, but a fierce, strong presence. His gaze locked onto hers, but she didn't feel afraid. There was a slight butterfly in her stomach when he looked at her—it was as though he were sizing her up, trying to see if she was worth holding what had once belonged to him. The memory faded, but the lingering sense of peace and strength remained, settling in her subconscious. The Flame reacted to this presence and caused her palms to glow. The lightsaber blade itself seemed to brighten slightly in response to it. Odd…it was like picking up a stray kitten that had been squirming around and resisting until it decided to trust you and be still—it was the only good analogy she could think of for that feeling.

 _Now what?_ She wondered.

"Do as I do," Maul instructed. He showed her a few basic blocking moves—it wouldn't matter how well she could fight if she couldn't ward off her opponent's blows. He made sure to adjust his own lightsaber to its lowest setting where it wouldn't injure her badly if he did land a hit. Then, he had her practice blocking with it. Melody lost track of the number of times she ended up being disarmed—half the time, she didn't even see him move before she ended up being ragdolled. The other half of the time, she would see where he was going, but was too slow to stop him in time. They moved out of the small room to avoid damaging any of the other things in there. Even with more room to move around, though, it took her a _long_ time to finally fend him off. The lightsabers crackled loudly when the blades clashed and the stench of something burning filled her nose. The first hints of a smile—a _real_ smile—were visible on his face.

"Good."

Though Melody was slower to get good at this than he would have liked, she seemed determined to get better. Though she had red burn marks all over her from that first day, she didn't complain about them. She didn't complain about how she ached all over either. No matter how tired she was from everything else, she looked forward to practicing with the lightsaber. When she could successfully block him nearly all the time, he started to teach her some offensive moves. It was more fun, but infinitely more dangerous and Maul stopped going easy on her very quickly. She was forced to learn how to heal more complex injuries in order to recover faster—bigger gashes, sprained wrists and ankles, more severe burns. He didn't have to press her to study the holocron, as she was doing that on her own.

Then, something happened that neither of them expected.

One day after a particularly intense sparring match, they were resting outside the hidden room. Glowing moths were fluttering around inside the caverns—it was mating season for them, so the air was thick with bluish-green luminescent wings. Melody noticed one that had fallen to the ground. Frowning, she crawled across the damp floor towards it. She carefully lifted it in her sweaty palms, seeing that its light was flickering with instability.

 _It's dying,_ she realized. Some kind of predator had torn off part of its wing. Though it had held on this long, its efforts were seemingly in vain. Even as she cradled it in her hands, its light went out.

Maul watched from the background.

 _Heal…_

Her palms glowed around the moth. Its wings fluttered, but that seemed to be more of a reflex than anything as the nerves were stimulated. When Melody's palms went dark again, so did the moth. Maul inched closer soundlessly. Frowning, Melody closed her hands over the still insect's body. A spark of stubbornness was starting to well up inside her.

 _HEAL!_ She insisted.

There was an odd squelching sound—for a moment, Maul wondered if she had accidentally crushed the moth. White light shone between the cracks in her fingers. White fire exploded between her palms and rushed upward, forming a tapered sphere. A rush of heat exploded outward, rippling violently. The moths, frightened, scattered away from both of them in order to continue their courtship in a safer place. Melody's eyes had closed, her focus becoming laser-sharp. She could see all the moth's damaged innards in her mind's eye and she felt a very strong second presence inside her own body.

 _The Force…the Flame…that's what I'm feeling…_ she realized in wonderment. Swirls of color streamed through her mind's eye and rushed into a swirling vortex around the moth. She heard her own heartbeat in her ears. She felt sick and dizzy and hot quite suddenly and toppled backwards.

The light faded.

Maul reached her side just as her hands weakly opened. The moth crawled onto Melody's index finger, lingering there for a moment. Its damaged wing was whole again. Though its glow was still weaker than all the others that were flying around, it was steady. Melody gazed at it, her own faint smile growing stronger.

 _You're…alive…_

She carefully eased her hand closer to her face so that she could see her handiwork better. The moth's wings moved gently in and out as though it were breathing through them. Though its primitive insect brain didn't comprehend what had just happened, it didn't seem the least bit afraid of her.

 _Look, Master, I did it! It's alive!_

Maul's first conscious reaction was one of disbelief and understandably so. This thing hadn't really been all the way dead, had it? He had seen plenty of death in his time and knew just how hard it was to snatch something out of its grave once it was really there. He had seen the difficulty Mother Talzin had when she had been trying to construct a new body for herself, and even she hadn't succeeded in spite of her power. With a _lot_ of experience, maybe…but he hadn't expected for Melody to make such a leap in such a short time.

But his intuition told him otherwise. He had seen that moth die. He had watched as its life force had gone out. He had _sensed_ it was dead. And yet here it was…it was hard to tell if the moth would be different or lessened somehow by its death the way the Nightsisters had been when Mother Talzin had resurrected them to continue fighting Grievous and his droids during the invasion. Though he had not been present for that, she had shown him her memories of it later on when he'd returned to Dathomir. But this…

He mentally touched the moth's primitive consciousness, studying it. It didn't seem any different other than being alive now, but it _was_ only an insect. A more complex being might be another matter. As depleted as Melody was now, he could only imagine what a person might do to her.

When the moth was able to, it flew away. Melody watched it through heavy eyelids, more exhausted than she had ever been in her entire life, but also happier.

 _I can't wait until I'm strong enough to bring them back,_ she thought, her gaze tracing the green mist that threaded through the swirl of twinkling lights, _then I'll have an entire family again…_

Her eyes closed then. Without thinking about it, Maul picked her up and took her inside. She was in such a deep sleep already that she didn't stir when he spread her blanket over her. He noticed the marks that she had been making on a sheet of paper that she'd tacked to the wall—there was one for each day they had been here together. When he counted them up, it amounted to one standard year.

He began to notice other things, too. There were drawings—a lot of them. Melody often added a few details here and there before she went to sleep. Most of the drawings were of the two of them and some of their shared experiences. The latest one was of the lightsaber training where they had clashed blades. She had even put a bunch of dots to represent the sparks. As her coordination had gotten better over time, so had the drawings. In the older ones, he was only identifiable by the colors—he could make out some of his tattoos and the short, stubby lines that were supposed to be his horns, but other than that, it was an abstracted mess of scribbles. In the later ones, she'd managed to make him look at least recognizable. Her own short figure beside him was distinguished by the scribble of messy curls on her head and the polygon-shaped red cape that she now never went anywhere without. She had also illustrated a few of the stories he had told her—what she thought Mother Talzin looked like (the only big difference being that her eyes were actually silver instead of green), what she thought Savage and Feral looked like, and even Ventress, the former Sith apprentice turned bounty hunter when Dooku had betrayed her in typical Sith fashion. She had an oddly accurate memory for detail even if her artistic ability didn't yet convey it.

The last picture he noticed was one that was tacked over a small dresser. She had placed her music box there. In clumsy Basic, she had written at the bottom "MY FAMILY". Both her parents were there with her in between them…

…and standing directly behind her was himself.


	11. Chapter 10

The crowd was in high spirits tonight. The air was heavy with alcoholic fumes, the smoke of numerous high-inducing substances, and the sticky, grimy smell of unwashed bodies. Headache-inducing cheap perfumes adorned the various scantily clad ladies (or at least what _looked_ like ladies) that hung off the arms of men that were not at all gentle. The clinks of credits and glasses accompanied the profanity-laced conversations and speculations. Though they should have found a welcoming embrace among such scum, he supposed he never would get used to it. Maul's entire life had been spent in the mentality of _other_ , of never truly belonging anywhere. He floated like the mental specter he was past the gamblers, the drinkers, the solicitors. One poor, starving waif of a woman stretched her hands toward him and found herself shoved backwards by an invisible hand in return; she pouted and sought company with someone less…distracted. It was almost time and he didn't want to miss it. Placing several anonymous bets, he had hoped this little side quest would help them secure a decent living for a while without attracting much attention. It was nearly time to execute what everything had been building to for the last decade. A tiny spark of excitement permeated the darkness of his mind. Tonight, his apprentice would be put to the test. Though she'd had plenty of practice dispatching petty thieves and drunken pirates and the occasional bounty hunter that was too green to be of any real trouble (especially when he had her back), she would be going up against a professional fighter. It would be interesting to see how she would do.

He found a place among the shadows to watch in the makeshift arena. Melody was still concealed in some small room in the back. The crowd was assembling, all of them chanting their favorite's name. Melody was performing under some alias—when it was announced, they all booed her soundly, as she was an unknown. The door slid open, revealing her, and the boos and hisses turned into laughter. Her opponent, a rather huge Mandalorian man, looked her up and down and scoffed.

"What a pretty dress. It would be a waste to get blood on it. Are you sure you want to do this?"

A grave nod. She was sure.

"It's your funeral."

The chime sounded and shouts of encouragement roared around them, howling for blood. Melody did not draw the lightsaber immediately; she only stood still, watching. Her opponent circled her, sizing her up and looking for a weakness. He would not _truly_ know until she moved where was best to strike her—he also knew that tiny women like her could be equally as dangerous as well-built men like him. He'd faced them before in arenas like this where they had become as deadly and fast as vipers when the adrenaline began to flow. Her gaze watched him, mischievous and cheerful. Though her mouth did not smile, her eyes did. He found that gaze unsettling. She was undressing him with her eyes, calculating the easiest way to chop through his reinforced armor.

He lunged.

She pivoted, dodging him easily with a delicate sidestep. Now he saw some potential—he would have to take out her legs to slow her down. He lunged again, this time feinting, but she saw through it and nearly tripped him. He corrected quickly, managing to grab hold of her. She slid out of his grasp and somehow got around behind him, delivering a carefully angled kick to his right knee. The blow strained his tendons, but the armor managed to absorb the worst of the impact. His retaliating swipe clipped her ribcage and he saw her shudder slightly in pain.

 _Regretting not using armor of your own?_ He wondered. She would probably want to protect that spot now, leaving him openings. But she didn't. Instead, her hands glowed briefly as she clutched it, dodging him again, and the color came back to her face. Puzzled, he drew his blades. No more messing around. Something about her made him want to get this over with.

Time seemed to slow down for Melody. Drawing her lightsaber, it ignited with a forceful hiss and sparked angrily as she blocked his blades with it. The announcer was quite surprised, having not seen a lightsaber in the arena for quite some time. Maul's body inclined forward ever so slightly. _Now_ it was getting interesting. The two entered a deadly dance, swishes and hums making an odd staccato music with the discordant harmonies of the now roaring crowd. Melody was pinned against a wall at one point, but she sprang nimbly into the air, sailing over his head. Confused, he had only just managed to turn around when she thrust the saber into his shoulder. She'd missed hitting any flesh, but the red-hot metal seared and blistered his skin. Swearing in pain, he bore down on her, determined to put a stop to this nonsense. Melody continuously evaded him for a few minutes, but she was unable to land a strike.

 _He's tiring me out,_ she thought, _or trying to…_

She reached out to her master's thoughts, but Maul closed himself off. He couldn't and wouldn't help her—this was _her_ fight. Melody's expression had turned grim when she realized she was on her own. Half-pleased that he had enough confidence in her and half nervous, she rolled away from the converging blades. He was obliged to protect that shoulder and the adrenaline stemming from the pain was fueling him.

Melody needed a new plan.

She managed to avoid the worst of it, but a sharp gash opened across her thigh at one point. Gritting her teeth, she embraced the flood of adrenaline that came from the searing sting. Warm blood began to drip down her leg, but she ignored that aspect of it. Her vision dimmed as she focused only straight ahead. Block, block, parry, swing, block. She had to resist the urge to protect her injured leg—if she tried, she was only going to create more openings.

Wait…

She feigned doing just that. His blades lanced straight for her face and her neck, but Melody simultaneously guarded them with one arm and thrust her saber upward. The hot plasma bit into the chestpiece of his armor. This nasty little wound was closer to his heart and had gone deeper. One more inch to the left and her Mandalorian friend would be in deep trouble. He yelled, unable to keep back the scream of agony as a neat circle of meat in his chest was cooked instantly. She brought her leg up, kicking him hard enough to knock him off balance. She was bleeding profusely at this point and her pounding heart wasn't helping matters, but she knew she almost had him. He dodged her thrust; she had to disarm him first or the silver blurring sphere around him would still keep her at bay.

WHANG! One blade went flying when she managed to strike his wrist with her hilt. She gave it a sharp kick and sent it flying. One down, one to go. She got a nasty surprise, however, when his booted foot went straight into her groin.

 _Son of a…_

She crumpled like a sack of bricks, every female organ she had screaming in objection to this. Her vision whited out for a second. She was only vaguely aware of her injured friend scrambling to his feet though he was looking very unsteady. Still holding the other sword, he swung at her and she only just managed to avoid the glinting silver blade. Hot nausea invaded her stomach. If only the damn stinging would subside for just a second…

Melody shakily got to her feet. She was going to have to end it soon. One more hit like that and she wouldn't be able to focus at all.

 _I should have guarded it better,_ she lamented, _I keep forgetting it works on us too…_

Breathing heavily, she shrank inward and turned sideways, making herself as small of a target as possible.

 _Heal…_

The pain subsided but only slightly. It was enough that she could think around it at least. Embarrassed, she hoped her master didn't think badly of her for falling for the oldest trick in the book. She followed the silver tip of the blade and made what was, in retrospect, a foolish but desperate decision. She accepted the blow—but as it opened a long cut along her arm, slicing clear down to the bone, she knocked the blade aside at last and slammed her foot into his abdomen. She sliced a neat circle right over his heart. Everything went still as she placed one foot on his abdomen and pointed the shining blade at his chest.

 _Yield,_ she demanded.

The Mandalorian couldn't hear her thoughts, but he understood her intent, her expression. He gave the signal and the referee called it. The crowd burst into confused applause; their bloodlust was satisfied, but they didn't know what to make of their years-old champion being felled by this unknown woman. Swallowing back acid as the referee held up Melody's gloved (and bloodsoaked) hand, she managed a weak smile. Not wanting to appear weak, she strode towards the back where the medical droids awaited and then allowed herself to crumple onto the bed. Someone mercifully gave her something for the pain and cool relief washed through her body. As the layers of gray gauze lifted from her vision, she felt her master approaching. He appeared at the side of her bed as the wounds were sealed closed.

"You're going to have to be more careful," he critiqued her. She nodded, accepting it with grace. She had nearly gotten her femoral artery sliced open—if he had managed to hit it, she'd have died right there within minutes.

 _I know. I panicked a little,_ she admitted, _I was afraid of losing._

"We've talked about this. You cannot be thinking of other things when you're out there. It will cost you."

It was one of her many flaws, one that vexed him thoroughly. Melody's mind was prone to wandering even at this age. He had never quite managed to break her of this dangerous habit. Whether it was a Derelithian thing, a woman thing, or just a _her_ thing, he didn't know. But it was a liability—a dangerous one.

 _How'd we do?_ She asked eagerly when he was done explaining to her what mistakes she'd made. He gave her the fat pouch full of credits—it was _heavy._ She smiled, dipping her hand in the bag and feeling the cool metal against her now ungloved palm.

 _This will keep them all fed for weeks,_ she remarked, _at least until they can hunt for themselves again._

During the entire decade plus of training her, they had never spoken of Dathomir's revival as a "might" or a "could be". They had always talked about what _would_ be. As they drew closer, a quiet hysteria had settled upon both of them though they expressed it differently. For them, there was no other way of seeing it. The possibility that Melody might fail had never been considered. She had managed to revive insects, then primitive animals like birds or fish. More recently, she'd hidden among the different populations on different planets, using a police scanner that she'd patched into to find people who were critically hurt. She was careful to revive them, then vanish into the shadows again so that no one ever discovered her identity. She'd frequented bars like this one, watching carefully. Blaster-induced fatalities were common—she'd hauled perhaps a hundred different species out of their graves at the last second. She'd never tried reviving someone who had been dead for years yet, but she was as close to ready as they were going to ever be. Now, Maul had reasoned, she must be able to defend this revived population, as they had been poorly equipped to take on General Grievous and Count Dooku. Darth Sidous and Vader would prove to be so much harder—the Nightsisters, he lamented, would not last more than a second or two against either one, let alone both of them. Putting Melody in these dangerous arena fights would sharpen her skills and her ability to focus.

 _If she stopped making stupid mistakes._

Holding a tangible possibility in his hands, a marker of her progress, however, satisfied him for the moment though he was inclined to be hard on her. Once she was able to walk (though with a noticeable limp that would gradually fade), they returned to the privacy of the Gauntlet. Melody was reading what her new audience was saying on the Holonet and she read some of the more amusing comments out loud to Maul. She had her fair share of criticizers and trolls as well, but even these she found amusing.

 _I hope this one actually fills his promise to sign up to fight me,_ Melody commented after reading a rather scathing review, _I'm curious to see if he puts his credits where his mouth is._

Maul couldn't help but feel slightly smug. She had reminded him of himself in a tiny way; the hunter's glint in her eye was one he'd seen in his own reflection. _Challenge accepted,_ it had said. It was the first time in a while he could remember feeling anything resembling pride. Though she'd made some dumb mistakes back there, she'd still won. That was worth _something._ She tapped her challenger's profile to see some of his previous fights. Puzzled, she noticed there were no clips there, only bare statistics.

 _I don't think this one wants to give away his secrets,_ she remarked. She would have to find some other way to size her opponent up. As she turned the hilt of Mace's lightsaber over and over in her hands, she felt something resembling disapproval wash over her.

 _Something to say, old buddy?_ She wondered privately.

This had been happening since she was a child. It had happened from the first moment she'd seized hold of the lightsaber after they'd defeated the pirate. There were times she would see glimpses of memory from the saber's former owner Master Mace Windu. At first, the memories were more objective and played cinematically as she observed them at times. Here lately, though, something odd had been happening. The lightsaber seemed to be developing a consciousness of its own…Maul had once informed her that Kyber crystals were often referred to by the Jedi as "living crystal." Since the ones in his own saber were synthetic and formed by his own hands, his will was also theirs. When someone inherited a lightsaber from someone else, though, things could sometimes get a little more complicated. She stared down at the unlit lightsaber and felt as though it was looking reproachfully back at her.

 _This isn't what it's used for,_ a voice said faintly at the back of her mind.

 _I know,_ she replied, _but times have changed. I'm still using it to protect people that won't be able to protect themselves. How can you say no to that?_

For that, the lightsaber had no answer. She understood _why_ it objected to a point…the Nightsisters had not been blameless. They had used their Dark Side magic to twist innocent men into monsters. They had placed their own people in great peril for revenge's sake. The women, not seeing the true potential of their men, had forced them into a life of poverty and servitude. All this plus the slavish immersion into the Dark Side did not endear them to the Jedi. But whether the Light Side and all its force ghosts objected or not was not her concern—imperfect as they were, they were the only family she was going to have from now on. It was the only thing her master had ever asked of her in return for rescuing her from her tomb-like planet and raising her to adulthood.

Maul informed her that her next match would be within a few weeks; the rosters would have to be updated. The matches were arranged in order of votes—the person who had openly and viciously challenged her was bound to get the most. In the meantime, they had other things to do. Melody's stomach gave a double-flip when he mentioned _other things._ But she nodded serenely, still turning the lightsaber hilt over in her hands. She knew he meant Dathomir's resurrection. As they jumped into hyperspace, Melody gazed at the hypnotically streaming patterns of blue outside the windows. What she was going to attempt there was going to be the hardest thing she'd ever done. It was complicated—she'd never rebuilt a body from scratch before, had never attempted to bring somebody back that was dead for years. Once the soul was gone, there was absolutely nothing you could do. The only reason why they both believed this would work was because the Nightsisters' consciousness (and some of the Nightbrothers) were bound to the planet's magic. The planet had a consciousness of its own—she would have to commune with it and try to persuade it to give up its souls. Though it missed people being on its surface, it did not want more war. She hoped it would find her a worthy protector.

The blood red planet came into view and Melody snapped out of her trance with a start. How long had she been sitting there just spacing like this? Blinking a few times, she secured her harness for the landing. She was glad to see that this part of the planet was having its night time. Though they still lived underground in the caves, seeing sunlight would have made it harder for her to get to sleep. She was ready for bed. They wordlessly walked side by side into the mouth of the cave. Melody's gaze began to pan over the ruined statues, the path where the only footprints going in and out were hers and Maul's. Many a day had passed where she'd daydreamed of this place becoming populated again, of bustle and crowd. The Sisters could teach her so much and she'd have people her own age and gender to hang out with. Her mind had been going back to her Derelithian days when she'd had other children to play with.

When she got upstairs to her room, she was so tired that she didn't bother changing into her nightgown. She stripped off her clothes and tossed them in a messy pile on a chair. She blew out the sole candle she'd lit to see by and collapsed into bed. No sooner had her head hit the pillow, the dreams came.

 _She walked through the swirling mist in the dark caves. Somewhere in there was someone she was trying to find. After a moment of aimlessness and confusion, she found him sitting cross-legged by the faintly glowing river. His almost-black eyes opened and gazed up at her. She sat across from him, mimicking his meditation-pose._

You've come to try and talk me out of it, _she thought accusingly. The dark-skinned man gave a pained smile._

 _"No. Not this time. I'm here to help you."_

 _She tilted her head in puzzlement. The Jedi Master had often appeared in her dreams to try and talk her out of reviving the Nightsisters. He had been doing it since she'd gotten his lightsaber. He had serious reservations about bringing back a bunch of powerful Dark Side users and with very good reason. She wondered why he had suddenly changed his tune after twelve years._

 _"I can see that none of us is going to talk you out of this so we want to help you protect yourself instead."_

 _All at once, the cavern was filled with faces. Melody recognized many of them from Mace's memories though she didn't know all of their names. They all stood clustered around her, their faces grim and their disapproval radiating strongly. But she also saw something else in their eyes that made her shiver internally: concern. Concern for_ her.

I'm listening, _she invited him to continue._

 _"When you bring them all back,_ especially _Mother Talzin, focus on the will of the Light. As the leader of this clan, everyone will take her word as law. You must not allow the Dark to take over. If she inherits enough of your Flame, she'll be forced to defer to you. In actuality,_ you _will be the new Night Mother."_

 _Melody frowned. This hadn't been a part of her and Maul's plan at all. Mother Talzin was also unlikely to accept that idea either._

But she'll be angry with me, _Melody objected,_ she'll never agree to that. Master Maul probably won't either.

 _"You only want what's best for them, don't you? Sometimes that means protecting them from themselves. You lived in a place where men and women treated each other as equals," Mace reminded her, "you had parents that loved each other and sacrificed their lives to try and save yours. No one in this place ever had that. You'll be the one to show them differently. Dathomir can enter a new age now."_

 _Melody frowned. It was as though her innermost thoughts had been laid bare. She had studied Dathomirian culture from the records left behind by the Sisters. There were a lot of things written there that she had staunchly disagreed with though she'd never voiced it. Would it really be such a bad thing if she had some power over the others? She would be careful not to abuse it, of course. She would just get rid of some of the outdated traditions such as sacrificing the lives of innocent Nightbrothers just to prove one's worthiness of passing on his genes. They had culled too many and now there were none left._

 _"Think it over," Mace began again, but something else was coming. A brilliant green mist engulfed the room and the others fled. Mace stayed where he was, but his body had tensed._

Mother, _Melody greeted her politely._

 _The mist swirled around Melody protectively, not speaking to either of them. Melody could sense the heated resentment towards the Jedi Master for trying to interfere. She felt the anger, felt the coldness, the indignance of him trying to mess with what wasn't his concern. But underneath it all, she felt the fear. Odd…Mother Talzin had never been_ afraid _of her before. It was only a tiny spark of it, but still…_

 _The green mist sank into her skin. Melody felt as though a glacier had formed over her soul and was spreading through her blood, furring her veins with frosty white._

Mother, please stop! That hurts! _She pleaded, but her pleas went unnoticed. Though Mace remained expressionless while watching, she sensed his unease. Melody's mouth opened and she spoke in a slightly age-roughened voice:_

 _"And this is why you are dead, Jedi Master. You kept interfering in things you knew_ nothing _about. You are still paying the price for it."_

 _Melody's throat burned painfully. She instinctively clawed at it until Mother Talzin forced her hand back to her lap._

STOP IT! _She demanded mentally, more strongly now. A wave of hot anger at her rebelliousness rolled through her, making her stolen heart pound from adrenaline. Melody shuddered violently. She willed Mother Talzin out, feeling violated. She had never experienced such a thing before and hoped she never would. Her skin shimmered faintly and the green mist appeared once more, turbulent and pulsing with furious light._

Maybe he's right, _Melody thought,_ I've never seen her get angry until now.

The dream didn't so much fade as it was ripped away abruptly. Melody awoke with a start, suddenly aware that Maul was shaking her. He usually started gently with one broad palm on her shoulder. If she didn't wake then, the shaking got progressively harder and more rough until she opened her eyes and acknowledged him. She did, noticing the dark frown on his red and black features. Breathing heavily, she sat up, the damp sheets sticking slightly to her clammy skin. Though the covers slid off of her scantily clad frame, Maul seemed to neither notice nor care about her state of undress.

"Nightmares again?" he asked quietly.

 _Yes,_ she admitted, _but I think it was just nerves…I'm honestly surprised I slept at all considering the circumstances._

She rose from the bed and retrieved her slightly crumpled dress from her chair.

"What were you dreaming of?" Maul asked as she tugged it over her head.

 _Well…it was a bit confusing. Not every one of my dreams makes sense,_ she admitted, _but Mace Windu was there. He's been showing up a lot lately. And Mother was there, too. They were having some kind of disagreement. It was a little scary…_

Maul chuckled darkly. Though he hadn't gotten to know his mother very well before she'd passed away, her reputation had preceded her. Not many people could take on such a powerful witch and live to tell about it. They went downstairs together. Melody went through the motions of preparing breakfast for both of them though she was feeling too nervous to eat very much. She forced down a few mouthfuls between sips of coffee because she knew she'd pass out if she didn't. She would need all of her strength today. It comforted her to see that Maul didn't eat much more than she did. After clearing up the kitchen, they went outside. Melody's heart was jackhammering against her ribcage and beating so loudly that she could hear it in her ears. She was glad that the red gloves concealed the dampness of her palms. Trying to let go of the fear of failure, she strode towards the mouth of the cave. The desolate sands awaited her and the winds were blowing strongly today. Maul had moved all of the ships out of the way—his Mandalorian gauntlet named the _Nightbrother_ , the stolen TIE fighter from Malachor, and the dumpy old Mandalorian ship that had gotten them off of Dathomir.


	12. Chapter 11

What followed was something that would be etched in Maul's memory forever. At first, he couldn't see anything obvious happening on the outside. He felt a little startled, however, when Melody's mouth opened and she began to chant in ancient Dathomirian, her voice a strange melding of Mother Talzin's weathered and roughened voice and a soft, youthful alto whisper of what her voice might have sounded like if she hadn't been born a mute. Her eyes opened and they shone the same brilliant acid-green as the glowing magical mist. Her palms glowed softly at first, then the light began to intensify and spread. Beads of it collected at her fingertips. Maul remained a few paces away where he was, watching intently. His fierce golden gaze bored into the side of her head, but she was oblivious to him at the moment. Sparks began to snap out of her fingertips and she leaned forward. When she pressed her palms to the rust-colored earth, glowing cracks began to spiderweb out from them and spread in all directions. There was a strange humming, something that was too low for his ears to register but a frequency that caused his lungs to vibrate slightly. Pebbles began to clatter and chunks of the decrepit statues fell in the mouth of the cave. The ships began to make metallic clanking and banging noises as the tremors got steadily worse. He shifted his footing automatically to keep his balance better and his gaze was drawn away from her face at last to something on the ground near his foot. Puzzled, he knelt next to it. It was small and dark and shining like an oil droplet. When the light from the numerous cracks shone on it, however, it was a deep, pure scarlet. _Blood._ He watched it grow from the size of a pinhead to a dime to nearly as large as his closed fist. As it did so, two strange solid-looking lumps emerged from the center. He backed away as the puddle grew in size. Much to his surprise, the blood formed itself into the size and rough outline of a person. The twin lumps that had been near the middle became fully fledged hearts that shuddered uncertainly at first, then began to beat. Arteries and veins snaked out of them and absorbed the blood as they went. Maul's eyes narrowed in disbelief, a faint sinister red-gold glow visible in them. What he was seeing was _impossible_ and yet here it was. He resisted the urge to poke at the squirming mass of organs lest he inadvertently damage them. He was not a squeamish person and yet seeing a fellow brother or sister's insides lain bare like this made him a little uneasy. With some very unappealing squelches and splats, the muscle tissue began to sheathe pale ivory bone and skin and clothing soon covered it. He could see now that he was looking at one of the Nightsisters—he could recognize the silvery pale complexion and subtle shadowy tattoos on her face. Her eyes, a brilliant lavender, opened before she was all the way fleshed. Raising her still skeletal hand to her face, she stared at it dumbfoundedly as the Flame spread to her fingertips and graced her small digits with skin. Maul glanced up and saw that the same was happening all around. Puffs of green vapor had risen out of the planet's surface and were hovering over half-formed piles of organs and bones. Once the body had shaped itself beyond a certain point, the green cloud of vapor would descend into it and rejoin the living. He noticed Mother Talzin's body laying crumpled up beside Melody. Just as he was wondering whether her consciousness had rejoined it, the mist that had enabled Melody to speak rose out of her body and caused Melody's concentration to temporarily falter. She blinked several times and the supernatural glow vanished from her eyes. She suddenly seemed overly pale and was dripping with perspiration. Looking as though she were an inch from passing out, she willed herself to finish the last little bit of what she'd started. A last burst of energy left her palms before she fell facedown and caused the last few fingers and toes to be reformed. Stepping carefully around the others, he came to Melody's side. At first, she was breathing so shallowly that he couldn't tell she was breathing at all. Pressing two fingers to the side of her neck, he found her pulse there. It was very light and entirely too fast.

"She will be all right," Mother Talzin assured him, "she has only overexerted herself."

Maul's expression didn't change outwardly at hearing his mother speak again, but she _felt_ the beginnings of a smile in his presence. There was a large amount of smugness, too…and something that could have possibly been pride. After he flipped Melody over so that she didn't breathe in any dust, he turned to look at what should have been the biggest impossibility in the universe. Both hearts were only going a beat or two faster than they normally did but only because he had conditioned himself that way. Any other person in his position would have been jumping up and down and whooping for joy or else dissolving into joyful tears. But Maul had never done either of those things once in his entire life, so he was content just to stand there and watch. Many of the Nightbrothers and Nightsisters were coughing as their virgin lungs struggled to haul in enough oxygen. A lot of them had confused expressions and were wondering how they'd gotten there. The ones who had actually realized that they'd died were _very_ confused and looking around either in fright or in fury. None of them were able to get to their feet right away and only Mother Talzin seemed capable of speaking coherent sentences right at first—she informed Maul that the others might take longer to start behaving normally. They had not had as many years of training and the connection to the Force that she had. As though illustrating her point, a younger Nightsister, one that was probably only around fourteen or fifteen, half-crawled and half-dragged herself through the sand towards them. Her hands stretched towards them and she fussed and grunted the way an irritable toddler might. Some weren't even moving at all yet and lay staring up at the sky. Clouds had been steadily gathering there for a while and now tentative drops of rain were now falling.

"Those of you who can walk get inside the cave," Talzin shouted to them, "we will bring the others."

Progress was painfully slow. One of the Nightbrothers who had managed to regain control of his legs was still staggering drunkenly to the point of almost crashing into Maul. He sidestepped out of the way with a suppressed sigh and ended up knocking one of the Sisters over in the process. She looked up at him irritably even after he helped her back up. The raindrops had gotten heavier and more frequent by now. Using the Force to levitate the others out of the mud, Maul and Talzin steadily moved them into the mouth of the cave. It was possible to move more than one at a time but that took immense concentration that was almost impossible with all this chaos. By the time the last Nightbrother was brought inside, the previously huge cave was crowded. The Nightsisters squirmed their way through the masses gradually—many of them were beginning to remember where they had once lived and wanted to go home. Some were still trying to remember how they got there and why. Melody, still unconscious, was laying on a stretcher that was balanced on top of two stalagmites. She showed no signs of stirring even with all this noise. Talzin directed them all to move deeper into the bowels of the cave where they wouldn't be in such close quarters.

"Yes, even the men!" she huffed when several of the Nightbrothers hesitated. They followed her in a giant wave. Maul watched them all disappearing into the dark before he collected his apprentice and followed them. One of the Nightbrothers hung back a little to presumably get a better look at the stretcher. His eyes were a similar shade of gold to Maul's but he lacked the flame-pattern of red around the iris that came from being a Sith. His skin was a bright tawny gold like the light of a sunset. His horns were still relatively small which meant he was likely only around seventeen or so. His gaze met Maul's momentarily before dropping submissively to the floor. Maul swept past him without noticing or caring until the younger Nightbrother finally spoke up:

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"I doubt it," Maul replied without turning around. He heard the other Nightbrother's cautious footsteps behind him but the younger male made no more attempts to speak to him. Maul could feel his gaze on his back, however, and it was starting to annoy him.

When Maul reached the house with Melody still in tow, Mother Talzin was waiting for them. By now, there was a _lot_ more talking since the newly revived were apparently regaining their power of speech. With all this noise, the three of them managed to get inside undisturbed where they could tend to Melody in peace.

"There is only one time that two souls are meant to share one body," Mother Talzin explained, "and this was not one of them. The Light in her tried to fight against the Dark Side in me. She was fortunate that nothing worse happened. She is exhausted but will recover in a few days' time with rest."

"And the others?" Maul asked as he deposited Melody on her bed.

"They will regain their strength very quickly and be able to fend for themselves soon," she replied, "having the extra supplies certainly helps."

He gave a nod, satisfied.

"There is… _something…_ we should discuss privately," she said, dropping her voice to a whisper. Maul followed her downstairs, shutting the door to Melody's room behind her.

"What is it, Mother?"

"As I'm sure you're aware, I had to possess the girl to share my power with her. Consequently, I was able to read her thoughts," Talzin said, taking a seat at the kitchen table, "and what I was…perplexing."

"In what way?"

"She believes the Flame to take on voices of people she is closest to…or was. She hears their voices and sometimes even dreams about them when she wants to seek their advice. Last night, she dreamed of the same Jedi Master whose lightsaber she now possesses. He was urging her to fill me with this Flame so that I wouldn't have any dominance over her."

Maul waited for her to continue.

"Whether this was simply a dream born out of fear or ambition toward something more sinister, I could not say. But she still _did_ it as she reformed my body."

"So what exactly is your concern about it? You're still one of the most powerful Force users in the universe," Maul reminded her.

"Not anymore," Talzin said quietly, "my _concern_ is that she will eventually try to control me with it. If she so chose to, she could become the next Nightmother. Can I count on you to keep her in check?"

Maul nodded. Melody didn't seem to be the power-hungry type. In fact, she was usually the opposite in the most irritating of ways. Of course, that was entirely subject to change now that she knew what she was truly capable of. A woman who could literally raise the dead—and _not_ just some poor zombie-like imitation of them—but fully functioning people, could ask for anything she wanted and none of it would be beyond reason. He had seen firsthand what power could do to people—he himself had _lived_ it.

"Whatever you do, never speak of this conversation to her," Talzin warned. Again, Maul nodded. He lingered there in the kitchen for a little while and listened to the gleeful shrieking of some Nightsisters outside playing in the water. They were just so _happy_ to feel cold water on their skin again that they were all behaving like children. He wouldn't admit this to anyone, but he was already beginning to miss the quiet. Things had been simpler when it was just him and Melody. He'd never been fully at ease in the company of others, but _this…_ it seemed strange that he felt so alien among these people who were supposed to be his family. It was one of those rare moments that he could admit to himself that he missed Savage terribly.

 _I wonder if any of his remains can still be found,_ he thought idly, _if that's all she needs…_

He shook his head as if to clear it. Dwelling on such things wasn't all that productive. Savage's body had probably simply been incinerated and his ashes gone who-knew-where. He felt a spark of hatred for Sidious that always fanned into an inferno before too long. Savage's life had been far too short and ill-used. He was the only one who had recognized his brother's talent…

Deciding he needed to be alone for a while, he returned to his room. Mother Talzin had apparently decided not to move back in there; she was downstairs. Maul closed the door and sat cross-legged on the floor. He let his fury at Sidious be the fuel that he fed his own brand of the Flame with. Many an hour had been spent thinking of the various ways he was going to kill him if he ever got the chance to…

 _That's not the way it should be done,_ a quiet voice whispered to him from within. Maul snapped out of his particularly graphic daydream, surprised.

 _There are other ways to bring him down. Revenge is the one that will most likely get you killed._

He frowned. That voice sounded familiar. He looked up to the door expecting it to be open or at least cracked with one green eye peering around it at him. Melody, however, was still unconscious. Odd…this voice, though mental, had sounded distinctly female.

Then, it dawned on him who he was hearing.

 _Kalindi,_ he thought irritably. Of all the voices his imagination chose to use, it _had_ to be that one.

 _Revenge is what he deserves and I'll not stop until I get it,_ he resisted.

The voice came back more strongly this time.

 _It's only a madman who does the same thing over and over again and still expects different results._

Maul blinked. He wondered how long he had been gazing down at his hands in his lap. He also wondered why they were _glowing_ faintly. The light would have been almost invisible if his night vision hadn't been so good. Spreading his fingers, he examined them.

 _Where's it coming from?_

 _You know where it's coming from,_ the gentle voice assured him, _it's a part of you now if you'll only feed it._

But Maul ignored the voice. As he wrenched his consciousness away from this aggravating invisible spectator, the glow in his hands vanished.


End file.
